A TRUE LOVE

Lurking about at Kos' place (again). But the diary I just read has me in tears. Tears for the diarist's loss. Tears of joy at what the diarist celebrated with his beloved Lauren. Tears of hope that I met a man who loves me the way the diarist loved his wife. I hope he won't mind me sharing excerpts of his diary here, and I hope you will head over to Kos' and show him some love.

Fifteen years ago, on an ordinary March night in an ordinary town, I opened the door to an ordinary pub and first laid eyes upon the extraordinary woman who would change my life forever. I’ll never, ever forget the first time I saw Lauren: those beautiful cornflower blue eyes and her long, curly auburn hair made my heart skip a beat, or maybe two, and a strange feeling came over me; a feeling that something important had just happened.

She happened to be sitting with some people I knew from school, so I sat down at the table, across from her, and it was then that I got to hear for the first time that lovely, lilting English accent. I felt smitten, and I proceeded to spend the next hour or two flirting shamelessly with her, trying to make her laugh, and sometimes even succeeding.

Over the next few months a deepening friendship developed between us. I noticed she had the gift of making others feel comfortable with themselves; she had an infectious and generous smile; she had a serenity about her. As the months passed and we drew closer, I found myself opening up to her more and more; I felt like I could tell her anything about myself, and she made me feel like whatever particularly unflattering detail I might reveal could never lower her opinion of me. Lauren had an innate understanding of the inevitability of imperfection and this allowed her to see past faults and to focus on the good side of people.

As that year drew to a close, Lauren neared the completion of her master’s degree, which meant that her student visa would soon expire and she’d have to return home to England. As her last couple of weeks here passed by, I felt sadness over her leaving, but the sadness puzzled me; I hadn’t yet realized I’d fallen in love with her.

Two nights before she was to head back home – Saturday, December 19th, 1992, for the record – in the deep, late night quiet of her living room, we finally both gave in and confessed our true feelings to each other.

So began a very long distance love affair, her in northern England and me in upstate New York. This was the early 90’s, remember; the days before email and cheap long distance. A couple of two to three hour phone calls every week, even if made during off-peak hours, could eat a big chunk out of your paycheck. So we’d write these long, long love letters to each other. Lauren would scent her letters with her perfumes, and oh, how my heart soared when I smelled the arrival of a new letter in the mail. I’d hold the letter up to my face to breathe in the perfume, and then I’d tear open the envelope and read the letter over and over and over again.

Four months into our affair, in April of 1993, she came out to see me for two weeks and those two weeks were, without a doubt, the best two weeks of my life to that point. And when those two weeks ended, I took her down to JFK to see her off, and after she walked away from me and through the doors marked passengers only, I sat down and cried my eyes out, because I knew, for certain, that I had found the one thing I truly wanted in life.

A year and three months after that painful goodbye at Kennedy, me and Lauren married, on July 23rd, 1994. A gorgeous and magical day on the shores on Lake Windermere – right out of a movie, my father always says – that set the tone for the next thirteen years. We honeymooned in the Lake District and then I had to come home and wait for Lauren to get her green card, and a long wait it was; nine months in fact, and she couldn’t travel here during that time, and I had just started a new job that I needed to keep to prove to the INS I could support her, so we did not see each other once during those nine months. When that wait finally ended, we treated ourselves to a second honeymoon, a week in Maine in April of 1995.

But truly, for me and Lauren, the honeymoon never ended. Our love for each other never stopped growing. During all the time we spent apart, we always used to say, in letters and over the phone, that ALL we wanted, ALL we cared about, was being together. And when the time came for us to be together, we savored it. We truly and deeply appreciated the gift of being present with each other.

WHY RATIONAL WOMEN WON'T VOTE FOR THE BORG QUEEN

Sometimes, there are bloggers who make my job easier.

I still lurk around at DailyKos. Occasionally, I post a comment or two - but I don't diary there anymore, because far from allowing for dissenting opinions and meaningful discussions, Kos' blog has turned more into Kool-aid drinkers who flame you for disagreering with Kos himself, and not backing down from that position until Kos does. (Sigh).

Oh, well, I didn't want to rant about Kos (that's for another post when I good and pissed off). What I wanted to post was a good diary I found at Kos' place that provided a rational, well-articulated, analytical post from a young woman about what she can't vote for Hillary Clinton (aka "The Borg Queen"). Read it and then, head over to Kos's to give Progress for America some love:

This is an appeal to rational women.

I’d like to talk to you about Hillary Clinton. Almost 15 years ago, I asked my mother why so many people hated the President’s wife. She didn’t have an answer that she was comfortable giving her 10 year old daughter. Even if the answer would have been appropriate, she would have withheld it. In my family, women did not assert their political (or otherwise) opinions fiercely. And support for either of the Clintons would have been in great opposition to my neoconservative father.

My mother’s father, my paw-paw (what we call our grandpas in Louisiana), was a lifelong democrat. I remember my paw-paw telling me about the Great Depression. He told me that he had to walk miles to sell a bucket of snap beans for 5 cents. He said at that time, the world was without a bright light at the end of the tunnel. He taught me the value of work. He taught me the value of integrity. And he taught me about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He told me that FDR saved not just the United States, but the entire world by exuding extreme courage and conviction, and challenging conventional thought. My paw-paw told me that when his country needed him, he proudly served. He did it without thinking twice. He did it because his country had not forgotten him when he was in need. He told me that America defeated fascism abroad and had sown the seeds for democracy in Europe. He told me why democracy was so important and why America was so great. He told me that the American people are the government. That a [man] who didn’t represent the people’s needs was a “traitor to democracy.” He said, “money and power can corrupt even the most noble [man]” and so “the people must hold the government accountable.” That’s tough language from a strong willed patriot.

He told me that my college money had been depleted by the neocon’s policy of deregulation throughout the 1980’s. He said Ronald Reagan hurt many small business owners like himself (he installed septic tanks for 30 years with his three sons). He said that things were starting to get better in 1992. He said it was because “...a democrat has been elected.”

I was pretty excited. My paw-paw got a breath of fresh air. But then my paw-paw got sick. After two open-heart surgeries (the second one partially due to poor care at the hospital facility), his savings were completely depleted. His surgeries added 5 years to his life, instead of 10-15 years which some recipients enjoy, due to the poor care. In those 5 years, he mostly talked to me about the influence of money in our political system. He probably didn’t fully understand Washington lobbyists, but he understood greed.

And then there was Hillary Clinton. She was a hero to me. Maybe because she was the first woman I had heard pushing to make a change for women and children. I was young, but she was what I wanted to be. Someone speaking for the voices of those who would otherwise fall through the cracks. She was smart. She was tough. She was a role model.

I am sorry to say that she is no longer that role model.

Sisters, I know that many of you see Mrs. Clinton as the living example of the progress that women have made in America. It is our birthright to be treated and valued as absolute equal, capable members of society. We will hold every office in this land. After 231 years, the country is finally ready for a Woman to lead the free world.

I know that you see Mrs. Clinton as ready to assume the highest leader position in the nation, the Presidency. There is no doubt that she is also ready to assume the role. She is ready, but is she right?

Her strongest points seem to be that she is experienced. She points to her prior years as an advocate for women and children. She points to her work in the Clinton administration (as the first First Lady to have an office in the West Wing!). She points to her work as a Senator serving the state of New York. She is ready to lead, “from the first day she’s in office.”

Point 1: Prior years as an advocate for children and women’s rights.

I applaud Mrs. Clinton on everything she has done for women and children. She has led an extraordinary life of service.

Point 2: Experience in the White House

Mrs. Clinton’s most prominent role in the Clinton administration was her health care plan in 1993. Unfortunately, it was defeated, not even receiving enough support from the House or Senate to get a vote on the floor, with Democrats in both houses. America would have been better if her bill had won, but it was defeated by lobbyists and cheap politics. The Democratic Senators and Congressmen did not support Mrs. Clinton’s health care plan because they were (and still are) taking money from Healthcare Industry lobbyists.

Mrs. Clinton now receives more money from those same special interests than the top three Republican candidates for President combined.

Point 3: Her work as a New York Senator

Mrs. Clinton has been a consistent Democratic vote in the U.S. Senate. No one would dispute that. However, the Democratic party has done a very poor job of representing the American people for at least the last 15 years. This is mostly due to the influence of big money and corporate interests in our government. This is not a difficult concept.

How has your life improved over the last 15 years? Is it easier now to care for your family? Has providing healthcare for you and your loved ones become easier or harder? Cheaper or more expensive? Have your wages (in real dollars) increased or decreased? What about child care? Are we providing more for our mothers in need or less? And although Democrats haven’t been in charge this whole time, they’ve proven to lack leadership in the face of great challenge.

Many would argue that the Clinton administration used the idea of the “welfare queen” to reduce the social programs that disproportionately benefit single, needy moms. This is not an attempt to discredit the economic prosperity that we experienced under his administration, rather to make the point that fighting Republicans is harder than saying you are fighting Republicans. Bill Clinton adopted the Republican talking point about welfare and using it as a political tool, made it central to his campaign. Today, we have more women living far below the poverty line trying to care for their children. They have five years, working thirty hours a week to “get back in line” then we exclude them from receiving benefits. This has worked against the ultimate goal of lifting our nation’s poor out of poverty. This system, instead, punishes those women and their children. What happened in the 1990’s with social programs in this country is a perfect example of corruption infiltrating the Democratic Party. If you take bribes from lobbyists, you are telling the American people that their needs are second to those of business. This is what Mrs. Clinton has done.

This party once stood for regular people.
This party once stood for the working class.
This party once stood with single mothers.
This party once swore to protect the rights and interests of the voiceless minorities.
This party once cared for our nation’s children.

We cannot be that party and be the party of big business. There is no room for compromise.

Many people ask me, “Do you think that Hillary Clinton is really that bad? You know about her early work with children.” The fact of the matter is that when you are evaluating a presidential candidate, you have to consider who they are now and what they will do in the future. As much as I respect Mrs. Clinton for her service, I must look to who she is now. I must recognize who she represents. And as a woman in America, whose right to vote has only been guaranteed for 87 years, I must make the decision that guarantees each woman after me a better life. That better life lies in economic equality. The next president will have to address the role that American business has played in women's struggles.

I have not disposed who I am voting for. It is each of our responsibilities’ to look at the candidates and their platforms. Look at where they stand on the issues and look at what they say. Do not become distracted by political language. We have a right to compare these people based on what they stand for and who they represent. If they appear frightened to use strong, clear language, you should be weary. We’ve been down that road. It’s time to change course.

Who will make the best candidate for women? The candidate who places poverty above all else.

This will take great courage and conviction. This will take challenging conventional thought. Our country needs us.

It is time to proudly serve.

As a clarification has been requested, I will not support Clinton in the primary. Until we have a candidate chosen, I will not reference who I will or will not vote for in the general election.

'Nuff Said.

MEMO TO CONGRESS....YOU SUCK

Although I have my issues with Daily Kos, sometimes, their diarists posts diaries of sheer prosaic genius. They make my job as a blogger easy, because I can cross-post their diaries here.

Ladies and gentlemen, the latest from BondDad:

To Congress: You Suck

by bonddad

Tue Oct 02, 2007 at 04:19:50 AM PDT

I use to have respect for Senators and Representatives. They use to actually do something -- as in accomplish something good for the country. Unfortunately, that time has past at least for now. So, to everyone in Congress: you suck.

I first expressed my dissatisfaction with the new Democratic majority in this article on June 20 where I wrote:

But the Democratic victory in 2006 has left me feeling extremely hollow. More than anything I simply wanted someone to stand-up to the spoiled drunken frat boy currently inhabiting the While House. But the Dems blinked on war funding. While I understand the reasons for their backing down (not having a veto proof majority), I wanted someone at long last to say, "no". And the Dems didn't. So my disappointment grew.

The Dems have continued to disappoint. They have issued toothless subpoenas, failed to expose the extreme mismanagement of "War on Terror" fundinig and have now thrown in the towel in their opposition to Mr. 29%. For some reason, Democrats are afraid of standing up for what a majority of Americans want.

But the Republicans have done no better. They act in classic passive/aggressive manner. In one breath they are the oppressed minority, taken advantage of by the "liberal media" (save for Fox, and Rush, and Hannity, and Prager, and Medved....you get the idea). Yet with their next breath they use the same standard attack of personal destruction while acting as if they don't.

The final straw for me is the dueling resolutions about Moveon.org and Rush Limbaugh. To the Republicans, I would remind you of this funny little document called the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

If you don't like the ad, fine. But you can't stop someone from printing it. It's that simple. And considering some of the ads you guys have run, well, see the above paragraph on passive/aggressive behavior.

And now the Democrats are offering a resolution condemning Rush Limbaugh, only to have the Republicans offer a resolution praising Rush Limbaugh.

To the Democrats, I would like you to please re-read the First Amendment.

I give up.

This is beyond madness.

This is beyond stupidity.

Do you guys wonder why no one likes politicians? Anybody?

This country has serious issues.

We have a war that a majority of Americans oppose, yet we continue to fight.

(crickets chirping)

We have a mountain of debt that we have to pay-off sometime.

(crickets chirping)

We have millions of Americans who have no health insurance.

(crickets chirping)

We have an ever-increasing gap between rich and poor.

(crickets chirping)

We have students leaving college with debt levels so high that they can't climb the socio-economic ladder.

(crickets chirping)

So, to Congress...please, take this very personally.

You suck.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Oops, that's right, it's the reason why I copied it here, LOL.

JENA

This town is getting the same notoriety that its' neighbor over in Jasper, Texas, got seven years ago (James Byrd being dragged down the road behind a pickup truck for sport until he was decaptitated). And if it serves to embarass people into the 21st Century on issues of racism, I'm all for something good coming out of this mess.

The town's residents don't want to be known as a town full of bigots. Thanks to some high school students who were taught that bigotry, by residents of that town, well, Jena, you got the scarlett letter on your back now. 25, 000 African-Americans crowding your town to demand justice for six young African-Americans who are facing prison sentences meant for hard-core crimes (you know, like rape, murder, industrial-strength drug dealing, lying this country into a war) for getting into a school fight, earned you that Scarlett Letter of Bigoty.

Why don't bigots want to be publicly known as bigots? Saves people like me a lot of trouble and time trying to ID your behinds. Why do you need to hide behind a hood, robe and burning cross? Could it be, that maybe, just maybe, you know deep down in your hearts that you're supporting something morally wrong (like hating people because they don't look like YOU, perhaps?)

My father used to always say if he was given the chance of fighting a water mocassin and a rattlesnake, he'd take on the rattler every time, because the rattler lets you know he's going to fight back by rattling his tail. He used this analogy when talking about bigots, people.

Chopping down the tree where this fight got started doesn't eliminate that the local D.A., Reed Walters, went after those kids, now known as the Jena 6, for the wrong reasons, and that reason was race.

Some might compare this incident to the rape allegations against the Duke LaCrosse team made by an African-American stripper. I didn't think race should have played a role then - to me, it was a matter of a woman alleging she'd been gang raped by a bunch of athletes. Now, when you got the story, that racial epithets were hurled at the woman, that fact turned the incident racial, and rather than D.A. Mike Nifong looking for factual evidence he could take to build up an actual case against the Duke players, he used the racial aspect to ensure African-Americans re-elected him in droves, with the promise of continuing to vigorously prosecute this case.

Well, it worked. For a hot minute anyway. Wasn't long before his antics caught up with him, plus the fact that the Duke boys' parents had fat bank accounts to hire them serious legal representation. But, anyway...

Funny, how he (Nifong) used race to get re-elected, but the facts got him kicked out of office, out of a job, and out of his license to practice law elsewhere. But, the Jena 6 is different because race has been a direct factor from the outset. And while Reed Walters denies that fact, what's more important to note is that he's not doing anything to quiet down speculation about it being about nothing else than RACE.

Jena, Louisiana highlights, as did Jasper, Texas, that there are Americans who advanced to the 1960s and are still stuck there. It highlights that racism and bigotry is a taught science, and is passed down from generation to generation. Those of us born during the turbulent 60s are the generation who should have learned from mistakes made before we were born, and our parents taught us the determination not to repeat them. However, some were perfectly okay with training their children to be the next generation of Klansmen (ever see those film clips with babies in KKK hoods and robes? That should have been enough to scare you; those kids are in their late 30s and early 40s now, with spawn of their own)

Somewhere along the way, those lessons didn't get taught to a few white kids in Jena. But the lessons of bigotry did stick with them. That was where they got their motivation to hang a noose on that tree, after African-American kids decided to peacefull protest by sitting under that tree. Kinda like the kids did back in the 1960s at those lunch room counters at Woolworth's. And the Black kids got a noose to greet them for their trouble to protest bigotry.

The white kids thought hanging a damned noose is nothing more than a prank. Their parents probablly told them that. Tell that shyt to African-Americans who lived with those threats every damned day of their lives; despite laws being passed to outlaw such terrorism.

But you know what's worse than what's going on in Jena? The refusal of the so-called, "progressive" bloggers to give any time and space on their blogs to such a salient issue for African-Americans, for Latino Americans, for Asian Americans, for women, for the LGBT community, because just substitute "African-American" for any of the groups I've named here, and you have the same problem, if not worse. You have bigotry on a massive scale.

Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend called out her fellow progressive bloggers on their dereliction of duty in being the aspects of journalists we have been longing for, for the last 10 years. At best, DailyKos' MissLaura did a full post on Jena, today, but FireDogLake is mailing in the "Dog Ate My Homework" on their dereliction. HuffPo has been eerily silent as well.

My take on this - until "progressives" get their collective heads out of their asses on this one, you need to stop calling on us African-American bloggers to carry your water when it suits you to include us at the table. Until our issues are synonymous with your issues, (which means you don't get to pooh-pooh issues like the Jena 6, but we're expected to demonstrate outrage when Bill O'Reilly attacks you) you need to get that beam out of your eye before you tell me I have one in mine. Your silence tells me that my issues don't matter to you, so don't get upset if you come knocking on the door of Black Bloggers and we're not home.

NO REASON NOT TO IMPEACH

Okay, fine - I know Bush was exercising his constitutional privilage when he chose to commute Scooter Libby's sentence and make the man pay a fine. That just basically laid the groundwork for the full pardon he will grant Libby on January 20, 2009.

Funny how Bush remembers his privilages under the Constitution when he's not crapping on it.

Anyhow, Bush's latest flipping of the bird to the judiciary system, just compounds the continually piling on of offenses he's brought to the Presidency. This, after promising to restore dignity and honor to the White House, a "dignity and honor" that was supposedly trashed because Bill Clinton was getting his groove on in the Oval Office. At least, Clinton didn't go out and start wars because he wanted to, nor did he turn the White House into La Cosa Nostra and politicize the Justice Department, where the incompetent Alberto Gonzales still wears the job title of Attorney General, despite breaking the laws he swore to uphold.

That politicizing of the Justice Department also extended to a Supreme Court who has their collective foot on the gas to return this country to "those good ol' days" where Reamus shined shoes, Bessie cooked and cleaned someone else's house in order to support her family, and every person of color was spat upon, shat upon, beaten to the back of the bus that Black Men couldn't even get a job driving. Clarence Thomas actually believes that segregation and discrimination would have eventually been resolved ala Booker T. Washington.

W.E.B DuBois had other ideas about that. But, I'm digressing here. You want to know about why there's no reason not to impeach Bush and Cheney. Considering that Reagan's former NSA Chief, William Odom, is not only saying there's reason to impeach, he feels it's imperative, to the point, he's laid out a plan for impeachment, if the wimpy, spineless Democrats would only use it.

From DailyKos, via the Angry Rakkastan:

Retired three-star Army General William Odom threw Commander Guy under the bus today. And Odom is no ordinary three-star. From 1985-1988 he served as chief of the NSA under Ronald Reagan.

So take a deep breath, Red America: It’s going to be hard to spin this one.

Writing for Harvard University’s Nieman Watchdog, Odom called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Now, he’s done this before, so that’s not where the news is. Rather, the good stuff came at the end of Odom’s piece—when he delivered a three-step plan by which Congress can force the President to give in. Here’s a summation of what Odom said:

1. Redefine what "supporting the troops" means.

2. Flatly refuse to appropriate war funds "for anything but withdrawal operations with a clear deadline for completion."

3. If that doesn’t work, Congress should impeach the President for "the ‘high crime’ of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest."

Well, well, now. Even the Reaganites have had it with GeeShrubya. But, GeeShrubya has never, really been all of the problem. We've had a predatory overlord running this country under the guise of being a Vice-President. A VP who shot his friend in the face...and made him apologize for shooting him in the face.

A Vice-President who just claimed he's not a member of the Executive Branch of government, when asked (subpeoned) to turn over his records regarding who visited him regarding the development of energy policy, and anything else that smelled of Eau De Criminale, with a touch of Fred Thompson's stale cigar and English Leather, Hai Karate or Brut.

A Vice President who told the now Senate Chair of the Judiciary, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, to go "F---" himself, and didn't draw a peep of a censure from the Senate for dissing one of its own members.

A Vice-President, who has a lesbian daughter that just made him a grandfather, and yet, he's in a government that's so homophobic, her partner, Heather Poe, has no rights as a human being because she's gay, and no parental rights to little Sam Cheney; how do you explain that?

It's bad enough that six children in this world has Richard Bruce Cheney for a grandfather. If my grandfathers were one soupcon of the evil that is Dick Cheney, I would shoot them both with those Winchester rifles they owned, and get off for justifiable homicide.

A Vice-President who's dared us to challenge him on anything pertaining to being constitutional, while he controls our "Decider Guy" like Edgar Bergen controlled Charlie McCarthy for the last seven years.

Well, in all honesty, I'd be a little intimidated, too, seeing as he shot his friend, Carl Worthington, in the face, and the guy came out of the hospital apologizing for all the trouble he caused Cheney by getting shot. WTH?

Read that DKos post. Then try to tell me there's no reason to impeach Bush and Cheney, when the evidence clearly shows there's no reason NOT to impeach. We will be forever derelict in our duties as American citizens if we do not.

FROM AN ANGRY SOLDIER...

The following lament probably won't bother you, but it should. I don't apologize for the coarse language of the author, because she's in real pain, and the Government, nor the Preznit could care less:

From an Angry Soldier

by shii

Mon Apr 23, 2007 at 10:07:19 AM PDT

The following anonymous message was posted to craigslist by a soldier and widow in San Francisco.

One thing people have noted about this is that she refers to herself as a Marine but calls the armed forces in general "soldiers". However, since she's been out of action for six months she may have gotten used to lay terms for the armed forces.

I'm having the worst damn week of my whole damn life so I'm going to write this while I'm pissed off enough to do it right.

I am SICK of all this bullshit people are writing about the Iraq war. I am abso-fucking-lutely sick to death of it. What the fuck do most of you know about it? You watch it on TV and read the commentaries in the newspaper or Newsweek or whatever god damn yuppie news rag you subscribe to and think you're all such fucking experts that you can scream at each other like five year old about whether you're right or not. Let me tell you something: unless you've been there, you don't know a god damn thing about it. It you haven't been shot at in that fucking hell hole, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

• shii's diary :: ::
• 
  

How do I dare say this to you moronic war supporters who are "Supporting our Troops" and waving the flag and all that happy horse shit? I'll tell you why. I'm a Marine and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine, served several. I left the service six months ago because I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that fucking festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he's coming home in a box.

You fuckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

And you know what the most fucked up thing about this Iraq shit is? They don't want us there. They're not happy we came and they want us out NOW. We fucked up their lives even worse than they already were and they're pissed off. We didn't help them and we're not helping them now. That's what our soldiers are dying for.

Oh while I'm good and worked up, the government doesn't even have the decency to help out the soldiers whos lives they ruined. If you really believe the military and the government had no idea the veterans' hospitals were so fucked up, you are a god-damn retard. They don't care about us. We're disposable. We're numbers on a page and they'd rather forget we exist so they don't have to be reminded about the families and lives they ruined while they're sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting the troops, they'd bring them home so their families wouldn't have to cry at a graveside and explain to their children why mommy or daddy isn't coming home. Because you can't explain it. We're not fighting for our country, we're not fighting for the good of Iraq's people, we're fighting for Bush's personal agenda. Patriotism my ass. You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

So I'm pissed. I'm beyond pissed. And I'm going to go to my husband funeral and recieve that flag and hang it up on the wall for my baby to see when he's older. But I'm not going to tell him that his father died for the stupidty of the American government. I'm going to tell him that his father was a hero and the best man I ever met and that he loved his country enough to die for it, because that's all true and nothing will be solved by telling my son that his father was sent to die by people who didn't care about him at all.

Fuck you, war supporters, George W. Bush, and all the god damn mother fuckers who made the war possible. I hope you burn in hell.

I want O'Reilly, Hannity, Glenn Beck, Amy Holmes, Larry Elder, Armstrong Williams, and any other ditto head fighting keyboardist cheerleader to go and face this woman, or people like this woman and tell them why they still support burgeoning facism and this hellhole of a war, which is now known over at DKos as "This Generation's Vietnam".

Because we know that the ReThugs aren't going to say crap, and they will be enabled by the DLC.

BUSH SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME

PRETENDING ONCE AGAIN...

There are times when GeeDubya acts Presidential. However, he always chooses the times of tragedy and horror, to show off. And, he's not good at it, either.

Like now, when he decided to grace the campus of Virginia Tech, where a massacre took place yesterday, with his presence, at the memorial service for the victims.

You would think that his presence anywhere reminds one of his incompetence, as well as his absence on the things that really mattered, such as:

• Hurricane Katrina
• 9/11
• Iraq War
• Walter Reed Hospital.

But, nooooooooo, he has to go and be "Presidential" today, of all days. An alumnus of Virginia Tech couldn't have expressed my sentiments any better than he did in his DKos diary:

I find your desire to attend the memorial service on Virginia Tech to be just another callous and manipulative act. Do these people suffering from an inexplicable tragedy the favor of staying in Washington. You have nothing but empty sentiment to offer. However, to accommodate and protect your monstrous ego, security procedures will destroy the emotional sanctity of the memorial service. You know that, but you cannot resist the temptation to distract people from your failed foreign and domestic policies, not to mention the corruption threatening the survival of your terrible tenure as the president.

You have a history of the cheap political stunts to encourage people to think you are capable of caring about others. Your many visits to the destroyed Gulf Coast are perfect examples. You politicized and gutted FEMA. You were warned Katrina was a serious threat, but did nothing. You visited devastated areas time and again, but your administration accomplished little to clean up the mess. The least fortune and most vulnerable suffered the most from Katrina. Your words and sympathy did not translate into action.

You now want to pretend to grieve the loss of young lives. Before you bring your security circus to my alma mater, please explain your failure to attend the funerals of the 3300 young men and women killed in Iraq and 380 killed in Afghanistan.

THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, TOO...

Daily Kos has this up:

Sharpton went on to criticize Obama on other issues, including his relationship with Sen. Joe Lieberman, who's controversial within the Democratic Party.

"Senator Obama and I agree that the war is wrong, but then I want to know why he went to Connecticut and helped Lieberman, the biggest supporter of the war," Sharpton told TV.

Skeptical Brotha also informs us that John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are peeling off Congressional Black Caucus members to support them and not one of their own.

Which blows the "African-Americans are monolithic" theory to hell.

I've run out of adjectives to describe the junior Senator from Illinois...and it's getting very painful to watch him detonate his very own WMDs on his quest for the White House...which are Barack Obama himself.

Jeez....