A letter I emailed to Senator Bayh and Senator Lugar
Let me preface this letter by stating I am a retired US Army master sergeant who served from 1968 to 1988. Also, I am a confident heterosexual who does not feel threatened by the presence of gay soldiers in the army.
I have known and worked with gay and lesbian soldiers from basic training and throughout my entire career. This was before the ridiculous Don't Ask Don't Tell policy went into effect.
From 1977 through 1980, I had an extremely flamboyant medic who worked for me. He was one of the best soldier-medics I ever led and I never heard one complaint about him from the soldiers he treated for injuries, and many of those soldiers were Green Berets.
Some of the gay and lesbian soldiers I served with were in the closet. Some were openly gay. At no time did I ever believe their sexual preference jeapordized the mission.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE
This documentary film gave me new respect for Madonna. You can view it at http://www.iambecauseweare.com/ .
I hope after you watch it you might contribute to Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi. I have designated this organization as my official Facebook birthday gift. http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/254606 .
I hope after you watch it you might contribute to Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi. I have designated this organization as my official Facebook birthday gift. http://apps.facebook.com/causes/birthdays/254606 .
Friday, November 13, 2009
Justice at Fort Hood
Does anyone else find it ironic that the man accused of murdering 13 soldiers and civilians on Fort Hood a week ago, MAJ Nadil Hasan, will be judged in by a military courts martial rather than the State of Texas? No courts martial in the last half century has resulted in an execution. Texas is, without question, the most prolific enforcer of the death penalty.
Now I am not a great proponent of the death penalty. In fact, with very few exceptions, I believe that executions should be banned. What exceptions? Mass murder, serial murder, serial rapists, killers of law enforcement officers and other public officials in which there is absolutely no doubt of the guilt of the defendants.
While I am a retired Army master sergeant and believer of military justice, I wonder if anything short of the death sentence for the person who perpetrated the mass murder at Fort Hood is real justice. I would have preferred to see the State of Texas adjudicate this case.
Perhaps it is not too late. Let the Army have its courts martial on the murders of the military members who were killed and let the state try MAJ Hasan for the civilian murders. Doesn't that sound fair?
Monday, September 14, 2009
Health Care Reform
When it comes to worldwide life expectancy and infant mortality, the United States isn't even in the top 10. In fact, it is not in the top 30!.
Would you be surprised to learn that babies born in the Czek Republic, South Korea, and Hong Kong, have a better chance of living than those born in America? The good old USA is 33rd in world infant mortality. Cyprus, New Caledonia and Spain, also have lower infant mortality rates.
Would you believe there are 37 countries in the world that have longer life expectancies than the USA? Japan has the highest, followed by Iceland, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia. You will have to read the names of 32 other countries with higher life expectancies than America before you learn an American male can expect to live to 75.6 years, more than 10 years less than a man in Japan.
What do these countries with better statistics have that Americans do not have? The one common factor most have is Universal Health Care for their citizens.
Don't Americans deserve to be as healthy and live as long as Czeks?
www.americanhealthcarereform.org
Would you be surprised to learn that babies born in the Czek Republic, South Korea, and Hong Kong, have a better chance of living than those born in America? The good old USA is 33rd in world infant mortality. Cyprus, New Caledonia and Spain, also have lower infant mortality rates.
Would you believe there are 37 countries in the world that have longer life expectancies than the USA? Japan has the highest, followed by Iceland, Hong Kong, Switzerland and Australia. You will have to read the names of 32 other countries with higher life expectancies than America before you learn an American male can expect to live to 75.6 years, more than 10 years less than a man in Japan.
What do these countries with better statistics have that Americans do not have? The one common factor most have is Universal Health Care for their citizens.
Don't Americans deserve to be as healthy and live as long as Czeks?
www.americanhealthcarereform.org
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
An email I received from my friend Goody
PO2 (EOD2) (Explosive Ordnance Disposal)Mike Monsoor, a Navy EOD Technician, was
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
posthumously for jumping on a grenade in Iraq,
giving his life to save his fellow Seals.
(Notice: Mike was not a Navy SEAL, he was EOD.
He gave his life to save a group of Navy SEALS.)
During Mike Monsoor's funeral in San Diego ,
as his coffin was being moved from the hearse
to the grave site at Ft. Rosecrans National
Cemetery , SEAL's were lined up on both sides
of the pallbearers route forming a column of two's,
with the coffin moving up the center. As Mike's
coffin passed, each SEAL, having removed his
gold Trident from his uniform, slapped it down on the coffin.
The slaps were audible from across the cemetery; by the time the coffin
arrived grave side,
it looked as though it had a gold inlay from all the Tridents pinned to
it.
This was a fitting send-off for a warrior hero..
This should be front-page news instead of the crap we see every day..
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Peace on Earth, etc.
November 29, 2008 -- RE The front page of today's Herald Bulletin -- Which is the more shocking news story? One hundred fifty (200 at last count) being killed in more than three days of terrorist attacks in Mumbia, or one WalMart greeter being killed by 2000 rampaging shoppers in New York?
We have become accustomed to reading about Black Friday atrocities throughout the years, but I believe this is the first time a store employee has been reported killed in a shopping stampede. Terrorist attacks, especially overseas, have not been all that common, but who really cares, despite the fact that several of the victims were American?
Lest we blame the East Coast crowd of rabid day-after-Thanksgiving shoppers for all the mayhem at the malls this year, Inside the newspaper was the story of two men gunned down in a Palm Desert, California toy store on Black Friday. They shot each other to death, apparently arguing over a purchase.
Black Friday is supposed to represent to retailers, a day when their ledger books show an income, as opposed to Red Friday, which would indicate a monetary loss. I propose we change the name to Bloody Friday in commemoration of the WalMart greeter who died in New York and the two nuts in Palm Desert.
We have become accustomed to reading about Black Friday atrocities throughout the years, but I believe this is the first time a store employee has been reported killed in a shopping stampede. Terrorist attacks, especially overseas, have not been all that common, but who really cares, despite the fact that several of the victims were American?
Lest we blame the East Coast crowd of rabid day-after-Thanksgiving shoppers for all the mayhem at the malls this year, Inside the newspaper was the story of two men gunned down in a Palm Desert, California toy store on Black Friday. They shot each other to death, apparently arguing over a purchase.
Black Friday is supposed to represent to retailers, a day when their ledger books show an income, as opposed to Red Friday, which would indicate a monetary loss. I propose we change the name to Bloody Friday in commemoration of the WalMart greeter who died in New York and the two nuts in Palm Desert.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
A Piece of My Mind
Politics I
I doubt there is anyone happier than I am that the presidential elections are over and that our media will be free of new campaigns for at least a few months. No sooner were the votes counted though, than the conservatives began predicting doom and gloom for the republic because the electorate saw fit to put a raving liberal into office.
I am a baby boomer born into a family of Yankee democrats. In the mid 1960’s, although I wasn’t yet old enough to vote, I spent many a political campaign in Connecticut volunteering to stuff envelopes and making campaign signs for the local Democrat Party. This was more of a social activity for me than a political one. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in college that my commitment to politics became guided by idealism.
Academically deficient in high school, I was accepted to only one of the half dozen institutions of higher education I applied to. That was Barrington College, a now defunct conservative evangelical Christian college in a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island.
Barrington didn’t allow drinking, dancing, gambling, smoking, cursing or going to the movies unless the film was being shown on campus. Chapel attendance was mandatory and 30 hours of religious courses were required for graduation.
The war in Vietnam didn’t affect me much in the beginning of that freshman year, 1966. After all, as long as I was attending college, my chances of getting sent off to war were minimal.
Then, in the summer of 1967, something happened to change all of that. My boyhood friend, Donny Walsh, who had enlisted in the Navy after high school graduation, was killed in Vietnam.
Donny was a corpsman assigned to a Marine unit. He was killed while treating a fallen comrade on the battlefield.
The war suddenly became very pertinent and personal. I could not understand why Donny had to go and die in a country I barely knew anything about.
When I returned to college in the fall, I was a budding antiwar activist. I began attending demonstrations in Providence. Soon I was spending more time marching against the war than I did attend classes at Barrington.
When Dr. King was assassinated, I spent four days and three nights sitting in at the Rhode Island State House demonstrating for passage of the Fair Housing Act. The more time I spent out of class the less important my education seemed.
I started volunteering at the Eugene McCarthy for President headquarters in Providence. Finally, I moved out of my dormitory into a room in the back of the campaign office. Later I moved into an apartment that some students from the Rhode Island School of Design rented nearby.
After several weeks, I learned of a paying position in New Jersey and I flew to Newark and became the McCarthy campaign’s field coordinator for the 5th Congressional District. I was given room and board with a democrat family in Manville and the use of a Lincoln Continental and American Express card that belonged to an attorney in Sommerville.
June 5th 1968 at 2 AM, my secretary, a sexy 20-year- old Italian girl named Ellen, and I were driving from an after primary party in Newark back to Sommerville. As we sped down Route 22, we were listening to the news.
Bobby Kennedy, who had won the New Jersey primary as well as the one in California, was scheduled to give a victory speech in a Los Angeles hotel. We heard his assassination on live radio.
I pulled the white Continental off to the shoulder of the highway and with tears in my eyes began pounding the steering wheel with my fists in anger and frustration.
“Why work to get a man elected president when some maniac can shatter a dream with a gun?” I screamed. Ellen was as stricken with hate and horror as I was.
My short foray into the world of professional politics ended as abruptly as Bobby’s life. I dropped Ellen off at her house, forgetting her earlier promise of a night of romance. I then drove to Manville and sat in the car listening to the news until long after the sun came up.
At about 8 AM, I called my mother, who had sent a scathing letter to Senator McCarthy a few months earlier, accusing him of bewitching her son and making him quit college to chase a quixotic dream of ending the war. I told her I was going back to college.
“I don’t think so Jeff,” she replied caustically. “A letter from the Selective Service came for you a few days ago. I think you are being drafted.”
I pondered my choices. Remaining vehemently antiwar, I could refuse to be drafted and go to prison. I could go to Canada. I could go home, open the letter and report to the Selective Service.
I opted for a fourth choice. I decided to go to the nearest recruiting office and enlist.
Since I had taken my Selective Service physical and a battery of other exams two years earlier and had been told I qualified for virtually every school in the Army, I decided to enlist for a military occupational specialty in the medical field.
There were five recruiting stations in a mall in Sommerville. The first one I visited was the Coast Guard. They had a six month waiting list. The waiting list at the Air Force recruiter was almost as long. Since the local Selective Service in Connecticut had already sent me a letter, these services were out of the question.
I bypassed the Navy recruiter as well as the Marines. I knew the Marines used Navy corpsmen and I didn’t want to end up like Donnie.
When I went into the Army recruiter’s office, I announced I wanted to become a medic and asked how soon I could sign up. After ascertaining that my physical and pre-enlistment tests had all been completed, I was told they could put me on a bus to basic training that evening.
It took me one day to go from being a professional politician in the McCarthy campaign to buck private in the United States Army.
I doubt there is anyone happier than I am that the presidential elections are over and that our media will be free of new campaigns for at least a few months. No sooner were the votes counted though, than the conservatives began predicting doom and gloom for the republic because the electorate saw fit to put a raving liberal into office.
I am a baby boomer born into a family of Yankee democrats. In the mid 1960’s, although I wasn’t yet old enough to vote, I spent many a political campaign in Connecticut volunteering to stuff envelopes and making campaign signs for the local Democrat Party. This was more of a social activity for me than a political one. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in college that my commitment to politics became guided by idealism.
Academically deficient in high school, I was accepted to only one of the half dozen institutions of higher education I applied to. That was Barrington College, a now defunct conservative evangelical Christian college in a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island.
Barrington didn’t allow drinking, dancing, gambling, smoking, cursing or going to the movies unless the film was being shown on campus. Chapel attendance was mandatory and 30 hours of religious courses were required for graduation.
The war in Vietnam didn’t affect me much in the beginning of that freshman year, 1966. After all, as long as I was attending college, my chances of getting sent off to war were minimal.
Then, in the summer of 1967, something happened to change all of that. My boyhood friend, Donny Walsh, who had enlisted in the Navy after high school graduation, was killed in Vietnam.
Donny was a corpsman assigned to a Marine unit. He was killed while treating a fallen comrade on the battlefield.
The war suddenly became very pertinent and personal. I could not understand why Donny had to go and die in a country I barely knew anything about.
When I returned to college in the fall, I was a budding antiwar activist. I began attending demonstrations in Providence. Soon I was spending more time marching against the war than I did attend classes at Barrington.
When Dr. King was assassinated, I spent four days and three nights sitting in at the Rhode Island State House demonstrating for passage of the Fair Housing Act. The more time I spent out of class the less important my education seemed.
I started volunteering at the Eugene McCarthy for President headquarters in Providence. Finally, I moved out of my dormitory into a room in the back of the campaign office. Later I moved into an apartment that some students from the Rhode Island School of Design rented nearby.
After several weeks, I learned of a paying position in New Jersey and I flew to Newark and became the McCarthy campaign’s field coordinator for the 5th Congressional District. I was given room and board with a democrat family in Manville and the use of a Lincoln Continental and American Express card that belonged to an attorney in Sommerville.
June 5th 1968 at 2 AM, my secretary, a sexy 20-year- old Italian girl named Ellen, and I were driving from an after primary party in Newark back to Sommerville. As we sped down Route 22, we were listening to the news.
Bobby Kennedy, who had won the New Jersey primary as well as the one in California, was scheduled to give a victory speech in a Los Angeles hotel. We heard his assassination on live radio.
I pulled the white Continental off to the shoulder of the highway and with tears in my eyes began pounding the steering wheel with my fists in anger and frustration.
“Why work to get a man elected president when some maniac can shatter a dream with a gun?” I screamed. Ellen was as stricken with hate and horror as I was.
My short foray into the world of professional politics ended as abruptly as Bobby’s life. I dropped Ellen off at her house, forgetting her earlier promise of a night of romance. I then drove to Manville and sat in the car listening to the news until long after the sun came up.
At about 8 AM, I called my mother, who had sent a scathing letter to Senator McCarthy a few months earlier, accusing him of bewitching her son and making him quit college to chase a quixotic dream of ending the war. I told her I was going back to college.
“I don’t think so Jeff,” she replied caustically. “A letter from the Selective Service came for you a few days ago. I think you are being drafted.”
I pondered my choices. Remaining vehemently antiwar, I could refuse to be drafted and go to prison. I could go to Canada. I could go home, open the letter and report to the Selective Service.
I opted for a fourth choice. I decided to go to the nearest recruiting office and enlist.
Since I had taken my Selective Service physical and a battery of other exams two years earlier and had been told I qualified for virtually every school in the Army, I decided to enlist for a military occupational specialty in the medical field.
There were five recruiting stations in a mall in Sommerville. The first one I visited was the Coast Guard. They had a six month waiting list. The waiting list at the Air Force recruiter was almost as long. Since the local Selective Service in Connecticut had already sent me a letter, these services were out of the question.
I bypassed the Navy recruiter as well as the Marines. I knew the Marines used Navy corpsmen and I didn’t want to end up like Donnie.
When I went into the Army recruiter’s office, I announced I wanted to become a medic and asked how soon I could sign up. After ascertaining that my physical and pre-enlistment tests had all been completed, I was told they could put me on a bus to basic training that evening.
It took me one day to go from being a professional politician in the McCarthy campaign to buck private in the United States Army.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Why I Voted for Obama
Okay, I'll admit it. My vote in the 2008 presidential race was more of a vote against Bush and the war in Iraq than it was one for Obama. I would have cast my ballot for a guy named Beelzabub if it meant keeping a Republican out of the White House. Better to be led by the devil you know than by a proven liar and wolf in sheep's clothing.
I don't hate McCain as much as I distrust him to be different from the present president. I do despise what Bush has done to the Army I served in for 20 years and the country and world I have lived in for more than six decades.
A democratic republic gets the government it deserves. I did not vote for Bush either time he ran, but apparently he earned enough votes to get elected in 2000 and again in 2004. If those elections were not bought by voter fraud, we have no one to blame but the voters for the eight years of darkness we elected Obama to lead us out of.
Come January this country begins a new era, an era in which the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice hopefully will inhabit black chapters in America's history books. Although I sincerely believe these people deserve to be tried for war crimes, I hope they at least fade away quietly into the purgatory of political and social oblivion.
I don't hate McCain as much as I distrust him to be different from the present president. I do despise what Bush has done to the Army I served in for 20 years and the country and world I have lived in for more than six decades.
A democratic republic gets the government it deserves. I did not vote for Bush either time he ran, but apparently he earned enough votes to get elected in 2000 and again in 2004. If those elections were not bought by voter fraud, we have no one to blame but the voters for the eight years of darkness we elected Obama to lead us out of.
Come January this country begins a new era, an era in which the names of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice hopefully will inhabit black chapters in America's history books. Although I sincerely believe these people deserve to be tried for war crimes, I hope they at least fade away quietly into the purgatory of political and social oblivion.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Presidential Debate
So John McCain thinks it is more vital for him to attend the congressional bank bail out debate than to attend the first presidential debate. Is this the same McCain who, up until earlier this month, thought the American economy was in great shape?
Relying on McCain to fix the economy is like hiring my auto mechanic to give the space shuttle a tune-up.
Could it be that McCain is afraid to debate Obama, although the topic of the debate is something McCain is arguably more qualified to discuss -- the war in Iraq?
Many media types expect the first presidential debate to have a larger viewing audience than any other individual television program in history. Isn't McCain's appearance at the debate more important than any contribution he could make to our bank crisis?
I'd rather McCain sign up for a college course in economics than miss this debate with Obama. The country would be a lot better off if he did.
Relying on McCain to fix the economy is like hiring my auto mechanic to give the space shuttle a tune-up.
Could it be that McCain is afraid to debate Obama, although the topic of the debate is something McCain is arguably more qualified to discuss -- the war in Iraq?
Many media types expect the first presidential debate to have a larger viewing audience than any other individual television program in history. Isn't McCain's appearance at the debate more important than any contribution he could make to our bank crisis?
I'd rather McCain sign up for a college course in economics than miss this debate with Obama. The country would be a lot better off if he did.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
An Open Letter to Republican Apologists
Face facts Republican apologists, Sarah Palin is a liar. She took a walk across the Bridge to Nowhere before it was built. Unfortunately, for her, she couldn't walk on water.
What are Governor Palin's lies? Her first was saying she opposed that pork barrel project when she actually supported it from the beginning. Her second lie was claiming she saved the American taxpayers money by nixing the bridge.
The truth is Palin not only supported building this bridge, she had nothing to do with its cancelation. And as to saving American taxpayers money, Alaska didn't get the White Elephant Bridge but still received $223 million from the taxpayers.
This isn't Al Gore claiming, in a slip of the tongue, to having invented the Internet.
This isn't Joe Biden plagerizing during his collegiate years.
Sarah Palin is a full grown woman, a purported Christian, a public official, who has told lies to make herself look fiscally tough.
A Republican president has fed this country eight years of lies and has nearly destroyed it in the process. We need to elect a vice president who doesn't base her qualifications on a lie.
What are Governor Palin's lies? Her first was saying she opposed that pork barrel project when she actually supported it from the beginning. Her second lie was claiming she saved the American taxpayers money by nixing the bridge.
The truth is Palin not only supported building this bridge, she had nothing to do with its cancelation. And as to saving American taxpayers money, Alaska didn't get the White Elephant Bridge but still received $223 million from the taxpayers.
This isn't Al Gore claiming, in a slip of the tongue, to having invented the Internet.
This isn't Joe Biden plagerizing during his collegiate years.
Sarah Palin is a full grown woman, a purported Christian, a public official, who has told lies to make herself look fiscally tough.
A Republican president has fed this country eight years of lies and has nearly destroyed it in the process. We need to elect a vice president who doesn't base her qualifications on a lie.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Beware of Medical Terrorists
More Harm Than Good: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures by Alan, M.d. ZelicoffMy review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
Four years ago, I began writing a blog (http://wordworks2001.blogspot.... to warn people about the dangers of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. When I read this book, I didn't have to go any further than page two for validation of my blog's premise. Here is an excerpt:
"...Before the 1960s, there was little a doctor could do about coronary artery disease. Patients with angina -- chest pain from coronary blockages -- were simply put to bedrest for several weeks and given aspirin.
"It must have seemed like medicine had taken a quantum leap ahead when the cardiac bypass technique was perfected in the later part of the decade...
"...The initial successes were splashed across newspaper headlines...
"...The truth was that bypass surgery wasn't the cure-all that the medical establishment made it out to be. Simply put the procedure didn't always work well, and it sometimes resulted in a more rapid demise than if nothing had been done at all!
"...Billions of dollars were spent for a procedure that benefited only a fraction of patients who received it, while arguably harming a great number of others.
"...It would take years for the data to show that people ended up with unchanged or shorter life spans from bypass surgery."
The subtitle of this valuable book is What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures. That is why I began advoctating that patients take control of their health care and insist that they coordinate and compose their medical treatment plan with their physician. In other words - Take Charge of Your Own Body!
Over the years I have begged and pleaded with people to always ALWAYS get a second opinion from a noninvasive cardiologist before being coerced into allowing a cardio-thoracic surgeon crack your chest open and perform a CABG.
The cardiologist who saved me from the surgeon's knife in 2004 started me on a medication regimen that continues to be effective and serves me well today. His name was Howard Wayne and he called cardiologists who were quick to cut "medical terrorists."
Personally, I call doctors who coerce patients and their family members into a traumatic and unneeded surgical procedure CRIMINALS, and I believe they are guilty of assault with a deadly weapon.
View all my reviews.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Vinyl Cafe
Last night I listened to an extraordinary radio program on WFYI, Indianapolis's NPR station. The Vinyl Cafe is a show that originates on CBC in Toronto. The host's name is Stuart McClain.
It would be an injustice to call Stuart the Canadian Garison Keiler. Both men are outstanding communicators but where A Prairie Home Companion is 80% entertainment and 20% human interest, The Vinyl Cafe is 80% human interest and 20% entertainment.
At any rate, I urge you to find the show on your nearest NPR station. It's on WFYI Saturday evenings at 8 PM.
It would be an injustice to call Stuart the Canadian Garison Keiler. Both men are outstanding communicators but where A Prairie Home Companion is 80% entertainment and 20% human interest, The Vinyl Cafe is 80% human interest and 20% entertainment.
At any rate, I urge you to find the show on your nearest NPR station. It's on WFYI Saturday evenings at 8 PM.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Book Review
The Way of the World by Ron SuskindMy review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you read this Pulitzer Prize winning journalist's most recent book, be prepared to experience a myriad of uncomfortable feelings -- grief, shame, anger, fear, embarassment, sadness, helplessness. The Way of the World ultimately is a story of greed and incompetence in and around the White House and betrayal and cowardice by the people who work for the man who lives there.
This is a story full of revealed lies and subterfuge. It is a story of how the freedoms Americans cherish were wiped out, not by a foreign enemy but by fear mongering at the highest level of government and through executive orders.. It is about a Congress that abrogated their responsibilities because they trusted a commander-in-chief who this book proves was not to be trusted.
Warning: If you rtead this book, it may be difficult for you to believe your government again. That may be the saddest thing about it. What a legacy for George W. Bush!
View all my reviews.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Presidential Elections
Let me preface this short commentary by announcing Ron Paul was the candidate I would vote for in November if the GOP had the wisdom and courage to nominate him. He is the only Republican I would vote for.
In 1992, I worked tirelessly and voted for Ross Perot. In 1996, I wrote in Bill Bennet for president. In 2000, I voted a straight Libertarian ballot. The 2004 election was crucial and I didn't want to squander my vote so I held my nose and voted for John Kerry.
The last Republican Party endorsed candidate I voted for in a presidential election was Ronald Reagan. Before the gipper, Richard Nixon got my vote. I voted for both in two elections.
I never could bring myself to vote for George Bush the Senior. He and his family profited from the savings and loan debacle. He was a bigger crook than Tricky Dick. George the Junior didn't get my vote in 2000 or 2004, not because he is a crook but when he was Governor of Texas he showed himself to be a complete nincompoop. In 2004, a combination of his total ineptness and extreme lack of veracity that turned me off.
This year, for the second time in my life, I intend to vote for a Democrat. I cannot stand the idea of anything ressembling four more years of Junior. Since John McCain has been the president's lackey, senate-vote-wise, for the past eight years, why would I expect him to change?
And our country desperately needs change. Bush's stupid war in Iraq has demoralized and nearly decimated our army, an army I proudly served in from 1968 to 1988.
I protested the Iraq War before Bush even began it, by marching in an anti-war parade in San Antonio in early 2003. After he started his war and my former comrades started coming home in body bags, I continued to protest it through letters to editors, members of Congress and the president himself.
If we had stayed the course in Afghanistan, kept our eye on the prize, instead of going to war with Iraq, the number of terrorists would have greatly decreased. Instead, Bush created a cause celeb for every freedom hater on the globe and turned a country into one big training ground for terrorists. One result of the Iraq War is now we have more anti-American terrorists in the world than we had before 9/11.
It's bad enough that Bush started an unprovoked war with his dubious pre-emptive strike against Iraq, he lied, more than once, about his justification. The Iraq War is the single biggest disaster ever perpetrated by a United States president.
Now I don't know if Barak Obama will make a good president, but its a good bet he will be a damned sight better than the yahoo who has held the office for the past seven years and eight plus months. That's why he is getting my vote.
In 1992, I worked tirelessly and voted for Ross Perot. In 1996, I wrote in Bill Bennet for president. In 2000, I voted a straight Libertarian ballot. The 2004 election was crucial and I didn't want to squander my vote so I held my nose and voted for John Kerry.
The last Republican Party endorsed candidate I voted for in a presidential election was Ronald Reagan. Before the gipper, Richard Nixon got my vote. I voted for both in two elections.
I never could bring myself to vote for George Bush the Senior. He and his family profited from the savings and loan debacle. He was a bigger crook than Tricky Dick. George the Junior didn't get my vote in 2000 or 2004, not because he is a crook but when he was Governor of Texas he showed himself to be a complete nincompoop. In 2004, a combination of his total ineptness and extreme lack of veracity that turned me off.
This year, for the second time in my life, I intend to vote for a Democrat. I cannot stand the idea of anything ressembling four more years of Junior. Since John McCain has been the president's lackey, senate-vote-wise, for the past eight years, why would I expect him to change?
And our country desperately needs change. Bush's stupid war in Iraq has demoralized and nearly decimated our army, an army I proudly served in from 1968 to 1988.
I protested the Iraq War before Bush even began it, by marching in an anti-war parade in San Antonio in early 2003. After he started his war and my former comrades started coming home in body bags, I continued to protest it through letters to editors, members of Congress and the president himself.
If we had stayed the course in Afghanistan, kept our eye on the prize, instead of going to war with Iraq, the number of terrorists would have greatly decreased. Instead, Bush created a cause celeb for every freedom hater on the globe and turned a country into one big training ground for terrorists. One result of the Iraq War is now we have more anti-American terrorists in the world than we had before 9/11.
It's bad enough that Bush started an unprovoked war with his dubious pre-emptive strike against Iraq, he lied, more than once, about his justification. The Iraq War is the single biggest disaster ever perpetrated by a United States president.
Now I don't know if Barak Obama will make a good president, but its a good bet he will be a damned sight better than the yahoo who has held the office for the past seven years and eight plus months. That's why he is getting my vote.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
An Open Letter to Clinton Supports
Dear Clinton Voters Who Now Support John McCain:
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." That adage came to mind when I saw a Hillary Clinton supporter announce in a political ad that she is now going to vote for John McCain.
Although I am not a member of any organized party (I am a libertarian-leaning independent), I can't help but feel sorry for the Democrats. Because this and a few other backers of Senator Clinton didn't get their way, they petulantly abandoned their party's choice even though he mirrors most of Clinton's ideals.
McCain is the very antithesis of Clinton and Obama. Yet this woman, who can't stand not getting her way, abandons her party to stump for him.
This woman had no interest in the country. She obviously supported Clinton because she was a woman. No doubt she would vote for any woman on any ticket, be her name Ann Coulter or Minnie Mouse.
This phoney democrat would rather give George Bush four more years in power by supporting his Republican surrogate than to cast her ballot for real change and voting for Obama.
The Republicans have effectively turned our democracy into a totalitarian state by skillfully playing on the fears of its citizens. Bottom line for this woman in the political ad is this: Lady, to elect John McCain guarantees four more years of bad government.
Clinton Supporters -- better you sit this election day out then take America further into the abyss. Please spend November 4 in bed pouting rather than going to the polls and casting a vote for John McCain.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." That adage came to mind when I saw a Hillary Clinton supporter announce in a political ad that she is now going to vote for John McCain.
Although I am not a member of any organized party (I am a libertarian-leaning independent), I can't help but feel sorry for the Democrats. Because this and a few other backers of Senator Clinton didn't get their way, they petulantly abandoned their party's choice even though he mirrors most of Clinton's ideals.
McCain is the very antithesis of Clinton and Obama. Yet this woman, who can't stand not getting her way, abandons her party to stump for him.
This woman had no interest in the country. She obviously supported Clinton because she was a woman. No doubt she would vote for any woman on any ticket, be her name Ann Coulter or Minnie Mouse.
This phoney democrat would rather give George Bush four more years in power by supporting his Republican surrogate than to cast her ballot for real change and voting for Obama.
The Republicans have effectively turned our democracy into a totalitarian state by skillfully playing on the fears of its citizens. Bottom line for this woman in the political ad is this: Lady, to elect John McCain guarantees four more years of bad government.
Clinton Supporters -- better you sit this election day out then take America further into the abyss. Please spend November 4 in bed pouting rather than going to the polls and casting a vote for John McCain.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Book Review
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism by Sheldon S. WolinMy review
rating: 5 of 5 stars
Despite the fact the theory set forth by the author describes what I have believed for some time has happened to my country, the journey he takes the reader on to defend his premise is very disconcerting indeed. From the beginning of the book, he compares The Triumph of Will, a pro-Nazi propaganda film of the 1930s with the May 1, 2003 performance by President Bush on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln beneath the backdrop of a huge banner reading "Mission Accomplished."
The author is careful not to actually compare Bush to Hitler, but he does introduce the concept of "Inverted Totalitarianism." His theory is the Bush regime's politics and style of governing mirrors the totalitarianism of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. Wolin goes on to aver this new style of totalitarianism could very well be an "epitaph for democracy in America."
The book points out that "Fascism is the product of democracy gone wrong, that had working constitutional systems which they gave up voluntarily." Wolin says recent studies have argued that "democracy has contributed importantly to the rise of Nazis and Fascists, and even served as a preparation." The same citizenry which democracy had created, proceeded to vote into power and then support movements openly pledged to destroy democracy and constitutionalism.
Bush's response to 9/11, in a very real way, caused thye perversion of America's democracy. "...Elements of invereted totalitarianism could not crystallize in the absence of a stimulus that would rouse the apathetic just enough to gain their support and obedience," says Wolin, "The threat of terrorism supplied that demand."
The Bush Administration used a document called The National Security Strategy of the United States (NSS), issued in 2002, to declare the president's intention to "reshape the current world and define the new one -- 'In the new world we have entered, 'it declared grandly, 'the only path to safety is the path of action.'" Wolin says at that instant, a new world [order?] had been born and the old world had been superceded.
This new doctrine was "an attempt to reshape the existing political system by enlarging the powers of the executive branch of government, including the military and policy functions, while reducing the legal protections of citizens."
Wolin explains how Bush used the elements of fear and power to "promote an awesome concentration of state power and authority" by representing that outcome as the product of popular consent. He made the only other alternative out to be chaos. Terrorism became Bush's boogeyman and scapegoat all rolled into one.
Wolin states "[Iraq] was fated to be selected as a testing ground..." In the NSS, "unilaterally, the United States declares it is justified in reconstructing the infrastructure of other societies." First, we subjected Iraq to awesome destruction, then after we destroyed the nation we went to work to try to reconstruct it into the an Islamic democracy.
What Wolin doesn't mention and may be the biggest wrong in the entire Iraq debacle: It was the American CIA that originally put Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party in power in Iraq, in the late 1940s. I guess you could say we built it, we broke it, now we are going to try to fix it.
Other evidences of the inverted totalitarian nature of what our republic has become is the belief that preemptive wars are alright, America can violate treaties and ignore international law. Wolin calls this the Superpower mentality.
The author accurately points out the Iraq War had its origins not in Southeast Asia but in Florida "where power without legitimacy was first envisioned. That was when power brokers found out that, if sufficiently determined, they could overcome the inhibitions of democratic constitutionalism." Perhaps if Al Gore had won the election of 2000, America might still be a democracy.
Democracy, Inc. is a serious and important work that can only contribute to our understanding of how and why the Republican Party has hijacked our country. The author holds out little hope that we can convert our country back into a democracy from the inverted totalitarian state it has become. I'll be damned if I vote for a Republican this year!
View all my reviews.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Book Review
In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration by David IglesiasMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's quite bad enough that the Bush Administration turned out to be the most inept in the history of the republic, but when you add his corruption into the mix, you get a toxic recipe that not only adversely affects the evil-doers in the executive branch, but also poisons the democratic process and those who try to make that process work honestly and ethically.
In Justice is about a bad president gone worst, how he and his immoral political operatives and appointees ruined the honor and reputation of the Department of Justice and ruthlessly killed the careers of several honest US Attorneys. It also reveals how certain Republican members of Congress let dirty politics replace any patriotism they may have had.
David Iglesias's story clearly demonstrates the old adage, "Honesty is the best policy." If Bush had demanded at least a modicum of ethical standards of not only himself, but of the men and women who worked for him, this book would never have been written and the president would not have had the distinction of being the most unpopular president in America's history.
View all my reviews.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Book Review
Mama Rock's Rules: Ten Lessons for Raising Ten Successful Children by Rose RockMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rose Rock is comedian Chris Rock's mama. She raised seven children and this book tells you how she did it. It may be the most important child-rearing manual since Dr. Benjamin Spock published his seminal work.
Moma Rock's Rules ius chock full of practical advice that will make any mother's job much easier. If a parent took half the tidbits called "Mama's Mojo" that are spread throughout the book and put them to use, he or she would find raising his or her child a piece of cake.
In 10 informative chapters Mama Rock does what a whole season of Super Nanny tries to do. Each chapter includes a summary of rules and strategies at the end. I like the way the book is laid out almost as much as I do the incredible information contained in it.
If you are serious about parenting and want to raise some great kids, buy this book. At $22.95, it is a great investment in your child's future.
View all my reviews.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
