FOR LALEH AND LADAN

FOR LALEH AND LADAN


Iranian twins Laleh and Ladan Bijani were joined at the head for 29 years.
I was deeply saddened to learn they did not survive the brave attempt to
become separated...to have missed an opportunity to look one another in the eye for
the first time...and to pursue individual paths.

..
Like the brave men on the path,
Wash off your hand from this copper-like existence,
So that one day you gain the alchemy of love
And become gold. -Hafiz

Truth Is Strongest Weapon In War
by Jimmy Breslin

June 15, 2003


I was around when Watergate was being called a third-rate burglary. Brilliant minds in Washington said congressional hearings would be ludicrous, cheap and unpatriotic. Then, Sen. Sam Ervin of North Carolina arrived with a lance to start cross-examining White House people, and we were off into history. I don't think he went three days when the first murmurs of impeachment were heard.

Therefore, on Friday I looked through my notebooks and files about the deaths in Iraq of two Marines, Cpl. Marcus Rodriguez and Sgt. Riayan Tejeda.

Rodriguez's funeral was at Blessed Sacrament Church in Cypress Hills. His mother passed out on the sidewalk after the Mass.

Tejeda was buried out of St. Elizabeth's in Washington Heights. After the service, the mother, bent in pain, had to be helped through a crush of grief on the sidewalk.

Today, the two dead Marines are the symbol for everybody who died in a war that was started because of a series of coordinated lies in Washington that said that Iraq had nuclear bombs. "Weapons of Mass Destruction." The Bush administration used the term so much that it turned into initials, WMD.

I use here a 100-page report from "Defense and the National Interest," a publication respected in war colleges and put out by Charles Spinney, a retired Air Force officer who actually put his reports out while working in the Pentagon since 1975. It is now on the Internet -- with whistle-blowers enthusiastically sending him reports.

Here is just one significant part of his 100-page release:

The State Department said on Sept. 12, 2002, "A new report released on September 9th from the International Institute for Strategic Studies -- an independent research organization -- concludes that Saddam Hussein could build a nuclear bomb within months if he were able to obtain fissile material."

In October 2002, the CIA said, "If Baghdad acquires sufficient weapons grade fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year. Without such material from abroad, Iraq probably would not be able to make a weapon until the last half of the decade."

It will either rain or it will not rain tomorrow.

The Defense and the National Interest Report states that more than 90 percent of the entire Manhattan Project budget went to fissile materials, less than 4 percent went to the weapons laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.

A bomb with fissile material or no bomb at all.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that there were no claims of Iraq actually attempting to import fissile material since 1991, and the known fissile material inside Iraq prior to that date has been fully accounted for by the atomic energy agency. In 1981, Iraq tried to import uranium or "yellowcake" from Niger. Twenty-two years later, Niger today cannot export yellowcake without the consent of its three partners, France, Japan and Spain. It has not happened.

The British then excitedly came out with a document with the forged names of half the government of the country Niger, stating that Iraq was buying uranium. One of the signatures was of a dead man. The forgery was sold to an Italian intelligence agent. There was no uranium moved anywhere. Intelligence agencies all over the place are saying that they knew about the forgery.

And then on Jan. 20, George W. Bush announced in his State of the Union address something that had been known to be fraudulent for months and yet he told his country:

"The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon, and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently bought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide."

That's what Bush said. Why he said it is the question. And why Cheney and Rumsfeld kept trying to justify the war with cries of "WMD" must be questioned by today's Sam Ervin. Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld and Powell loved aluminum tubes. If Saddam has them, he's ready to fire. The tubes turn out to be suitable for short-distance missiles and useless for nuclear manufacture.

One reason for your government operating this way could be that the small closed group in the White House sees what they want to see and proceeds from there, even if it is plainly delusional to anybody looking in from outside.

The only one who takes on George W. Bush over the weapons is Sen. Bob Graham of Florida. Graham compared Bush to Richard Nixon. He says the Republican closed-door hearings are shameful and a dangerous display of secrecy.

Aside from delusion, the other reason for scaring the country about nuclear bombs is lying. There is the lie being told that is false but which the teller has taken to be true. They give the president a speech that is a lie and he gives it. Then there is the lie that tells the opposite of what the teller knows to be true.

It leaps out that the reason given to Americans for going into Iraq -- to stop them from blowing us up with nuclear weapons -- was an outright lie. It was told to America by President George W. Bush. And people died because of it. What kind of a lie and why it was told is something that only a full investigation by Congress, full and on television, can tell the public and tell us who lied and why.

And tell the families of these two Marines we lost in Iraq and who stand for all the others who died for a lie.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0615-01.htm
___________ ________________

Is Bush's admission of "error" enough to get him out of a detailed investigation?
I imagine he hopes so.
Then again, there's the business of over 200 dead U.S. troops and the messiest war since Viet Nam.
How much does America care about being lied to in light of the grievous consequences?

White House Backs Off Claim on Iraqi Buy

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Time out for a shameless plug.
My friend Lisa Borders has written a knock-out of a first novel.
It's titled "Cloud Cuckoo Land".

Everyone should read it.



Pat Conroy, author of "The Prince of Tides", has said of the book:
"Cloud Cuckoo Land is an absolute original by a fresh new voice in fiction."

Bret Lott, author of "Jewel", has said:
"...Cloud Cuckoo Land is remarkable for its scope, style, and wonderfully big heart."

Not so coincidentally, a new official fan club for the rock group "Counting Crows" has just been given a name
chosen by the band members themselves... "CloudCuckooLand".
Lisa has many fans....read her and find out why!

Wesley Clark knew the Bush team was wrong-minded about the military well before they stole the election

Wesley Clark knew the Bush team was wrong-minded about the military well before they stole the election

" CLARK: I’ve never really addressed that issue. I’m considering this candidacy because a lot of people have confidence in me and have asked me to consider it. To me, it’s really about the issues. I saw it starting to go wrong before the [2000] election. I met with Condi Rice.
She told me she believed that American troops shouldn’t be keeping the peace—they were the only ones who could kill people and conquer countries,
and that’s what they should be focused on doing. What she was telling me [was] that she, as a potential Republican national-security adviser,
didn’t support our engagement in Europe. So I saw it going wrong from there.
Then, as the administration took office, I saw more and more what I believed were misunderstandings and missed opportunities."

Article here.

Liberalize the Media!

"The media is kind of weird these days on politics," former Vice President Al Gore is quoted as saying in the June 30, 2003 issue of Time Magazine. "There are some major institutional voices that are, truthfully speaking, part and parcel of the Republican Party."

Go here.
Listen or read.

Get to Know Your Neo-Cons--
Michael Ledeen -Part Two-

(Part One is here).

Flirting with Fascism
Neocon theorist Michael Ledeen draws more from Italian fascism than from the American Right."

Excerpt:

"As Ledeen shows, the Italian fascists expressed their desire “to tear down the old order” (his words from 2002) in terms that are curiously anticipatory of a famous statement in 2003 by the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. In 1932, Asvero Gravelli also divided Europe into “old” and “new” when he wrote, in Towards the Fascist International, “Either old Europe or young Europe. Fascism is the gravedigger of old Europe. Now the forces of the Fascist International are rising.”

Ledeen has his "creative destruction" sights set on Iran.
Think about it.
Get to really know your Neo-Cons.


More reading: The Persistence of Fascist Metapolitics in the Contemporary ‘New Right’

Europe For The Europeans:Fascist Myths Of The New Order 1922 - 1992 Both by Roger Griffin / Professor in History/ Oxford Brookes University Department of History/ Oxford

Can you believe we need to educate ourselves about facism?
It's come to this in America.
A dark day.
More darkness to come if we fail to see the warning signs.

"I think it's pathetic that I'm considered the left-wing liberal," Dean said. "It shows just how far to the right this country has lurched."

I just read a basically informative Washington Post article about Howard Dean with a curiously negative spin..from the title of the article to statements like this:
"Howard Dean was angry. Ropy veins popped out of his neck, blood rushed to his cheeks, and his eyes, normally blue-gray, flashed black, all dilated pupils."

and

"If Dean is the candidate crowds come to hear, he has also become the one pundits have come to watch, for better or worse. They won't soon forget his dour sparring with Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) during the Democratic candidates' first debate in South Carolina in May, or his shaky appearance on NBC's "Meet The Press" two Sundays ago. And that mouth. A product of New York, Dean can speak so fast that words come tumbling out, landing in a messy heap. In recent months he has been called "brusque," "brash," "blunt" and "belligerent"; a few more choice words on his part, and critics will be questioning whether Dean has the diplomatic skills needed to be the leader of the free world."

I'm finding that this is just typical Washington insider-journalist behavior.
Almost as if they are hedging...still not quite "getting it".
Not believing their own eyes and ears...lacking intuition, perhaps lacking courage to come out and admit
they see the forest for the trees.
I often wonder--is it corporate-related career pressure? Influence of some kind?
Why not simply inform us with news articles and cut out the spin?




There was another Washington Post article regarding Tim Russert that was analyzed by Progressive Review's Sam Smith who sees the article itself, by Howard Kurtz, as a spin-platform for Russert and calls Russert "The Establishment's Bill O'Reilly".
Smith brought up an interesting point about the last Meet Ther Press appearance of Howard Dean:

"....Well, you get the idea. Kurtz' log rolling for Russert fails to note a number of interesting questions such as
how much money did Howard Dean raise because voting "outsiders" failed to agree with the assessment of Washington "insiders"
after watching Dean on Russert? Further, Kurtz' paean poops out when he tries to give examples of Russert's excellence in journalism:

"One likely area involves budget deficits and Social Security, a Russert obsession. When he asked Dean about once having called for cutting
Social Security benefits, the former Vermont governor said: 'I don't recall saying that, but I'm sure I did if you have it on your show,
because I know your researchers are very good.' Dean added that Social Security is 'actually in fine shape until, I don't know, 2040 or
something like that.'

"'No, no, no, no, no,' Russert interrupted, adding: 'When the baby boomers retire, we have a real impending crisis.' Dean quickly backed
off.'"

Well, it turns out that Dean was closer to the truth then Russert and Kurtz, probably because the latter spend too much time talking with
politicians and too little looking at the facts.

According to the Social Security trust fund trustees, fund income will fall below fund expenditures in 2024 and will be depleted in 2037.
It should be noted that this figure has been adjusted several times by the trustees; over one four year period that depletion date has been
extended by eight years, which is a deadline that's pretty hard to catch up with.

There are other problems:

- The Social Security fund projections are based on an inordinately dour view of the American economy, essentially predicting
a continuing near recession in the coming decades.

- As the Left Business Observer has pointed out, while there will be a bulge in older Americans, the total ratio of non-working people
(which includes children) to employed Americans will be much better than it has been in the past.

- Finally, the trust fund is an accounting artifice, representing a political and not an economic choice of how money should be spent.
Should it run dry, we might even have to take some money out of the imperial invasion budget of the Pentagon.

But all this would be far too complex for Russert's liking and so he dismisses Dead ex cathedra and Kurtz laps it up. "



He's not the only one spinning..he just makes it incredibly obvious. Establishment spinners know how to hide the rotisserie. Read this entertaining article about Bill from today's Miami Herald.

I read a great editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer Online.
Excerpt: "U.S. soldiers are dying and dodging guerrilla bullets in a hot and hostile country and their commander-in-chief
says, "Bring 'em on"? Mr. President, do you live in a play house or the White House?"

Al Sharpton said of Bush's "Bring 'em on" statement:
"For the president to say, `bring it on,' almost like
daring and provoking Iraqis to kill American soldiers, he sounds more
like a gang leader in South-Central L.A. than one that is trying to
institute a policy of democracy and reconstruction in the world."


If Bush wanted to consider reality, he may want to read these two recent articles...
the first from BBC News
The second from the Christian Science Monitor.




Who knows where this road will lead us? Got a map, George?

The Bush administration likes to make roadmaps. How about a roadmap out of Iraq

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

READ THIS BOOK

Bush wants African Oil

Bush still looking for oil.
This time in Africa.

Bush's trip to Africa is causing him follow a Clintonesque path.
God, I'll bet Bush hates that comparison after saying in 2001 that Africa wasn't on his radar.
(I don't think there were too many blips on that radar at all, frankly).

If you hear Bush telling you he wants to get these poor folks out of poverty so they won't turn to terrorism -while he's concentrating on oil development for US interests- consider this (from the article:)

"The problem is that money going into the oil industry tends to fill the pockets of top politicians who grant access for exploration and drilling. Millions in “signing bonuses” and other concealed perks make a handful of people fabulously rich, but do little for the population at large. Indeed, the inflow of foreign exchange to oil tends to create relatively few jobs and allows countries to import, rather than manufacture, the goods they need. In the end, most developing countries that have oil as their economic mainstay are embroiled in conflict and mired in poverty."

The only way Africa has gotten on Bush's radar is OIL.
It's the same old same old.
At present, the United States imports about 18 percent of its oil from Africa. Iraq isn't panning out. OPEC is holding together and keeping their prices up.
There is no cheering in the Arab streets for what we have wrought in Iraq.
I guess it's time for some good old down-home expoitation of Africa.
Just watch. I'll bet Bush, all hubris and Godspoken, will be bold enough to look for the African-American vote
for all his "humanitarian" effort in Africa. Remember all the good he's doing with promised money for AIDS-curing drugs
for Africa...while sliding an ex-pharmeceutical honcho into the number-one oversight position.

If it's not Big Oil, it's Big drugs. It's always Big sumthin' with Bush and his ilk.
If it ain't Big, it ain't bringin' in the campaign contributions.
Money is the ONLY thing that makes Bush-style Republican policy work.
There is no virtue alone that could make today's GOP policy socially appropriate.
Money is their message. We are the United States of Amoney-ka.
If you ain't got the dime, Bush aint got the time.

If Bush really wants to help the poverty-stricken, perhaps he should look a little closer to home.
See this story from the Guardian.

If the following statement from the story is true and it could be proven, Bush should be promptly impeached and imprisoned.

excerpt: "Democrats believe the Republicans are being encouraged by the White House to cause chaos in the hope this will lead to the recall of the Democratic party governor, Gray Davis, and his replacement with a Republican, possibly Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Talk about being anti-american! Dragging your nation's economy down purposefully for political gain? That, my friends, is criminal.

What's happening to what was once such a great, virtuous, and noble nation?

Howard Dean, Webmaster

From the Howard Dean blog today:

Howard Dean, Webmaster
Adam Nagourney looks back at Howard Dean's Monday numbers and gets the complete picture in the Sunday New York Times' Week In Review :

"Political strategists have become increasingly fascinated with the Internet as a potential new force in political organizing and fund-raising.
But no one seemed to understand how effective the Web could be until Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate,
reported last week that he had raised $7.5 million in the second quarter of this year — with $4.1 million coming from his Web site.
Dr. Dean blew past his competitors, drawing checks and clicks from almost 59,000 people, which he suggested was a record.

It's not just money. Using the Web to get out the vote — replacing telephone banks and doorbell ringing — suddenly seems very real.
Dean supporters organized meetings nationally last week through Meetup.com, drawing 55,000 people in 250 communities.
Is it any surprise that Joe Trippi, Dr. Dean's campaign manager, would be proposing that the Web would transform politics as
much as television did after the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates?"

___________________________

My own comments as posted on the Howard Dean blog:

"Here is the key to it all...this is how Dr. Dean will, as we look back, have come strolling refreshingly on in and surprised them all:

Using Adam Nagourney's astute comment:

"....no one seemed to understand how effective the Web could be until Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate, reported last week that he had raised $7.5 million in the second quarter of this year — with $4.1 million coming from his Web site."

Many in Big Media just don't "get it" yet.
They're a tough crowd. Very slow to come around to reality sometimes.
They are beginning to understand..and voices like Nagourney's are powerful in getting those in journalism who are far too often wobbly and reliant upon "old-school" to come around to the truth of what is happening out here.


I love these music ideas, by the way.
Especially the Billy Bragg.

I've always loved this Peter, Paul, and Mary song..and in this day and age of Patriot Acts, Total Information Awareness, and sunshine patriots, it reminds me of the hope that still lives in our hearts...the hope that Dr. Dean symbolizes, for me:

HOME ON THE RANGE /
DON'T EVER TAKE AWAY MY FREEDOM

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam
And the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

Home, home on the range
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day

Three horses grazing out my window, brown, black and white they stand
Rolling pastures they can wander, free and easy is their land

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

I always thought that I'd see in my own lifetime
An end to poverty, injustice and war
But now I've learned that that job will take a long, long time
So there's one thing that must endure

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

When I am old and thinking over the whole life that I've led
If there's one final wish left to me
I will pray that the children, who are yet to be born,
I will pray that they will always live free

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

There is a time for the singing and the sunshine
There is a time for the thunder and the rain
There is a time for the changing of the seasons my friend
But there is one thing we must never change

Don't ever take away my freedom, don't ever take it away
We must cherish and keep that one part of our lives
And the rest we're gonna find one of these days...
One of these days

Traditional / Peter Yarrow

____________________

Irrelevant Journalism-Part 8941

Heard on the Chris Matthews show today:

Howard Fineman of Newsweek reading a letter from a friend he claims is high-ranking in the US Military.
He states that he had received the letter three weeks ago:

"Have I got news for you!
The reporters have fled and the real stories have just begun...Iraq is a mess."

Why did the embedded reporters disappear?
(The ones supported by so many of our tax dollars)?
Was it because the Bush administration claimed "victory"?
What made it a victory, really? Was it that gigantic statue that was pulled down and stomped upon?


Saddam-Did we really get him? Click here for answer.

Was that the end?

Hardly.

Ask the American families of over 60 men who have died since then.

Where are the embedded reporters now that the real stories have just begun?

They're back in their Bushworld where the big news today is wag-the-dog Liberia.

Carefully crafted Attention Deficit journalism.

The mess in Afghanistan has been all but forgotten (as we once again negotiate with terrorists in the Taliban out of the media-scope).

Will Iraq soon be relegated to the back-burner?

They're already trying..while troops are still dying.

It's Worse Than It Seems

From the blogs:
Is the draft coming soon?

It's Worse Than It Seems
By Steve Gilliard / http://www.DailyKos.com

"...Viceroy Jerry has asked for 50,000 troops to maintain his rule. There's one small problem with that. There aren't 50K to give. The US military is nearly at the end of it's deployable strength and needs to withdraw the 3ID as soon as possible...."

"....didn't we disregard our allies sane, rational, and logical suggestions about how to deal with Iraq? Now, we expect Japanese and Korean troops, forget French and German to help us out?"

"The request for troops is a political minefield and one which places the Army at it's limits. The war was supposed to be over, 50,000 men getting their Iraqi visas puts that to the lie once and for all. It would awaken opposition to the war and not solve the problem..."

"The Shia will determine what happens in Iraq regardless of our desires and will. The Army is stretched to the limits with no clear source of more troops. And there are no simple answers to any of this. Bring it on? We have brought it on, more than we can handle without grim choices..."

TEMPERAMENT WARS

TEMPERAMENT WARS
By James Traub
New York Times Sunday Magazine, July 6, 2003

"Why are the Democrats so much more willing than the Republicans to make political sacrifices in the name of procedural fairness or of good government? Maybe Democrats are just nicer, but a more philosophical view is that liberals are committed to, are in fact bedeviled by, ideals about process that do not much preoccupy conservatives, at least contemporary ones. Liberals put their faith in such content-neutral principles as free speech, due process, participatory democracy. Is that too lofty?"


Bitter charging is all the GOP knows.


"The G.O.P. is making such inroads among younger voters for the same reason that Fox News is making inroads among younger viewers.
We live in a culture that values brazen certainty and loud conviction, no matter how wrongheaded.
Pity the Democrats, stuck with the wrong set of virtues..."

George W Bush- Lies With Lips fully in Gear-Delusions of Granduer Also Spinning Madly

Army Times Editorial Shows the Truth -What the Average Military Man and Woman Are Thinking of George W. Bush's Empty Rhetoric

George W Bush lies with his lips fully in gear---his God-stimulated delusions of granduer apparently alive and intact--
how else could he make so many vacant promises and statements devoid of actuality?

The rhetoric is far more empty than the stuffed "man-area" of AWOL Flop Gun Bush's flight suit on the day he lied on and on about
victory in Iraq-- the combat being over--the mission "accomplished". Does he take active servicepeople and Vets for fools?

Veterans and active servicepeople can tell when a leader is trying to rip away at the social programs that benefit them.

They can see a phony leader feeding them pretty lines-- and they can see when the pretty lines have no substance
to transform 'pretty' to active reality.


A man's own life is important to him. So is his country and his beloved family.
The soldier thinks not about God's bestowal of grandeur upon his leader when following orders of that trusted leader.
The soldier concerns himself not with any glory his leader hopes to attain, but simply hopes for the grace of his God in the face of death.

If you think you aren't happy about the thought of perpetual war (allegedly inspired by God) at the drop of your leader's
war-mongering 'bring-em-on' hat, think about the men and women with their very lives on the line....and the families who love them.

"His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States.
So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of
the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category."

David Rubenstein, Carlyle managing director

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Poor Rich Little Loser-boy Dubya


He was down on his luck. Needed sumthin' to do. He liked tellin' lots of dirty jokes.
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __ __

David Rubenstein said:

"....when we were putting the board together, somebody came to me and said, look there is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down on his luck a bit. Needs a job. Needs a board position. Needs some board positions. Could you put him on the board? Pay him a salary and he'll be a good board member and be a loyal vote for the management and so forth.

I said well, we're not usually in that business. But okay, let me meet the guy. I met the guy. I said I don't think he adds that much value. We'll put him on the board because - you know - we'll do a favor for this guy; he's done a favor for us. We put him on the board and spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

He said, well I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.

And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again.
His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category.

from an actual tape obtained by freelance reporter Suzan Mazur who recently posted a partial transcript on the Progressive Review website.

See Democracy Now story re: a tape recording of Carlyle managing director David Rubenstein to have "A Look At Why The Carlyle Group Wanted to Drop George W. Bush From Its Board A Decade Ago"

A day to 'begin the world over again'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




Fourth of July, 2003
John Nichols: A day to 'begin the world over again'


The Fourth of July falls on a Friday this year, which is great news for the three-day weekend crowd that complains bitterly most other years about having to go to work the day after they "celebrate" the anniversary of the nation's birth.

In a country where just about every national symbol - from the flag to the presidential oath of office - has been bent to serve the interests of commerce and leisure, it is amazing that we still celebrate the Fourth of July on the Fourth.

As long as no one tells John Ashcroft or Dick Cheney that this holiday honors revolutionaries who threw off the chains of colonialism, empire, monarchy and the state-sponsored religion that were - and remain - the primary threats to freedom and human advancement, the Fourth is probably safe from interference from our contemporary King George and his churlish courtiers.

But how should Americans who take seriously the promise of a revolution - "that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with inalienable rights" and "that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among these men (and women), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" - go about celebrating this Fourth of July?

Should we raise the red-white-and-blue banner of the Republic? Well, of course. Though it has been dragged through the mud by so-called "patriots" who continue to engage in the sort of military adventurism that both Washington and Jefferson warned against in their farewell addresses to the nation, this remains the flag of the Wisconsinites who marched south to banish the crime of slavery from this country's soil. No flag has yet been associated with a nobler military endeavor than the Stars and Stripes when it flew above those who battled the Southern scoundrels who marched beneath the banner of human bondage.

Should we celebrate the founders themselves? Yes, within reason. It is true that many of the men who made this nation were flawed. The best of them admitted as much at the time. The worst were revealed in time. But no one who cherishes liberty should hesitate to raise a cheer for old Tom Paine, who wrote of Americans in 1776: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months."

As America celebrates the 227th birthday of the new world, however, it is important to recall that Paine also reflected upon the prospect: "If you subvert the basis of the revolution, if you dispense with principles and substitute expedients, you will extinguish that enthusiasm and energy which have hitherto been the life and soul of the revolution; and you will substitute in its place nothing but a cold indifference and self-interest, which will again degenerate into intrigue, cunning and effeminacy."

Paine's warning anticipated this degenerate moment, in which Americans are awakening to the prospect that the president and his advisers intrigued the country into a foreign misadventure that stinks rather too much of the imperialism Americans once associated with the British crown their forebears revolted against.

Should we despair at the realization of Paine's worst fear for the land? Perhaps a bit. But Paine would surely warn against surrendering to that despair. These may, in fact, be the times that try men's souls. But as Tom Paine suggested in 1776, such times are where the false patriots are separated from the true: "The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, as definitional a pair of summer soldiers as ever will be found, can lead their sunshine patriots in celebrations of imperialistic conquest and their allegiance with Tony Blair and what remains of the tattered British realm. The sons and daughters of Tom Paine will stand this Fourth of July and honor the revolutionary spirit that revolted against the corruptions of empire.

Copyright 2002 The Capital Times


http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/52132.php

Seen on the forums

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I noticed this on a political forum yesterday--liked it ;)

"Bring 'Em On"

If your aim is to bait the enemy,
You don't have to watch what you say.
You just have to do all your taunting
From a very safe distance away.

By DC Dave

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Listen to Howard Dean's NPR Interview -- Transcript Now Online

Go here to listen to
Bob Edwards' interview with Howard Dean on July 2.

American Prospect article on Dean campaign

Don't miss this article from American Prospect (link here). They have a good handle on what's really happening with the Dean campaign.

Doonesbury today

See the Doonesbury cartoon for today, July 4.

Bring 'em on?

These were Dr. Dean's comments on Bush's dangerously thoughtless and macho-impulsive Bring 'em on" statement yesterday:

“Today, President Bush provoked Iraqi militants targeting our soldiers in Iraq, saying ‘Bring them on.’ This was incredibly reckless rhetoric.
These men and women are risking their lives every day, and the President who sent them on this mission showed tremendous insensitivity to the dangers they face. This is the wrong message to send to our troops in the field and their families who wish them a safe return. President Bush should focus on encouraging the keeping of the peace, since that is now our mission.”

Friends listen

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"The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention… "
Rachel Naomi Remen