National Black Theater Festival

Off topic:

From a blog:

Dying to Preserve the Lies
In our family, we have 2 young Iraq veterans, having served already extended 15 months in Iraq are facing 2nd Deployments now, in few short months. This is no longer an all volunteer military; it has become perpetural entrapment for many of the troops. Years more of war in Iraq and Middle East with multiple rotated tours in combat; when will we bring home our troops?

Sunday, August 07, 2005
Secret Service intimidation looks like deliberate political action.
My dear husband, Arthur Ruger, himself a veteran, and we are member family of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO www.mfso.org), weighs in;

As an MFSO member and actively involved in MFSO Pacific Northwest, and with two family members trapped in a military situation of vulnerability to the demonstrated foolishness of the republican leadership, I have yet to suffer the kind of loss Cindy has suffered.

But the longer I follow this story in Crawford and share information nationwide through our Texas and national MFSO contacts, the more my own sense of outrage flares up.

If my family is asked - perish the thought - to pay the price Cindy has and is paying now, my reaction would be as hers. But I do and will continue to speak as a father and as a veteran who is totally embarrased that of all the talented baby-boomers of my generation, the shallowest and baddest political apple of my time has risen to the top.

When my political and moral sense were more intertwined in the 90's and I felt embarrased by Mr. Clinton's foolishness with Monica, I also hoped that another boomer would come along to demonstrate more the wisdom that came out of Viet Nam and the sense that an American electorate, when aroused, will replace incompetence with compentence.

In retrospect, I'd drop George and take Bill or Hillary or any other boomer in a heartbeat. In 2008 it won't be hard to find another boomer more capable than George - if the electorate is willing to take a chance on another boomer at all.

This morning we spoke with contacts who were in Crawford yesterday. When we read about Cindy and her veteran companions being forced to walk and stay in a ditch, we are talking about what was called a "barrow pit" in Idaho where I grew up. It's why in wet seasons water will flow alongside the road rather than across.

In Texas, (and I lived in Houston and South Texas for 8 years) it's also where water moccasins congregate.

There's nothing patriotic, considerate or exmpliary of acting in the national interest by sober-staring, earphone wearing suits who are supposed to insure the president's safety with one hand on their earphone, the other on their gun while they watch a woman their mother's age and disabled veterans try to negotiate what really is a ditch and not just a recessed area alongside the road that can serve as a "trail."

There's nothing noble in this situation where a president hides, where his entourage stands guard at the vacation parapets and ventures out in his name with talking points that have gotten to be so dull that they resemble ping pong balls rather than darts of logic.

There's nothing noble in a refusal to step out and meet Cindy face to face, thinking on your feet and expressing the wisdom a president and commander-in-chief is expected to possess.

Except this CIC hasn't demonstrated an ability to think on his feet, off the cuff and respond intelligently without coaching. Cindy would not be a hand-selected audience which makes it doubly difficult.

Cindy is not intimidated nor are the veterans representing the real military victims of republican corruption.

I'm told from Texas today that news media is not required to travel down in the barrow pit but that Cindy, the Vets and her supporters are.

Why is that?

Whoever made that decision owes us a justification.

Don't let go of this ...
Blog blog blog ...

This is the real noble cause.

http://dyingwarriors.blogspot.com/

This man is right. This is the moment that is making America wake up. I wish I could be there.

By Buddy Spell
Upbeat Defiance.com
LOUISIANA ACTIVIST NETWORK
www.newdemocracyrising.com

For months now, we’ve been planning for the mass rally in Washington, DC on September 24th; writing resolutions, organizing transportation, establishing communication lines, spending money, and fighting amongst ourselves. All of the major national and regional antiwar groups have been knocking themselves out trying to put together the seminal event designed to push for the end of the occupation of Iraq.

But, as it turns out, one fearless and determined mother, along with a handful of vets, took a spontaneous action which, as it turns out, is probably going to be remembered as this generation’s watershed antiwar event. So simple, so seamless, so Cindy Sheehan.

Cindy has cornered the war machine by confronting the president at his make-believe ranch deep in the heart of Texas. One mom and a few dedicated veterans have accomplished more by pure moxie in two days than the rest of the movement has been able to accomplish in two years. Bush is damned if he does; damned if he doesn’t. It’s reality television as poetry in motion. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s going to change minds about the validity of this war of aggression across this country. Bank on it.

We’ll still be in DC come September. And the first question you’ll be asked if you’re there will be, “Were you in Crawford?”

It is my honor and privilege to be Cindy Sheehan’s fellow traveler, friend, and attorney. I leave for Crawford Wednesday after I get out of court. I go wearing all three hats, honored to be in that number, humbled to witness history, and never more proud to be an American.

Peace out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1993199

Nice try promoting something pseudo-tolerant...I wonder how many Southerners will be there...

The Democrat Credo:

Shoot self in foot.
Reload.
Shoot self in other foot.
Repeat.

Progressives?

You cannot even progress past an offensive stereotype that is over 150 years old.

Regressives is more like it.

The Civil War was the most brutal and painful divide in our Nation's history and yet some here find it entertainment fodder.

You have lost one of your strongest supporters and Patriots.

I will always fight for America...it is my homeland.

In the South are the wonderful warm hospitible people Polly Sigh's Post degrades are my family and friends.

The South is my home and always will be.

I will no longer fight for or with those that have such blind double-standards.

Who needs the Neocons to divide our Nation...some of you Democrats do very well on your own.

Those who have not lived in the South would not understand...and never will.

The greatest Leaders of this Nation are from the South...from Washington and Jefferson...Madison and Monroe to LBJ...Carter to Clinton...and Lance Armstrong...our latest world hero from the South...and lest you forget...your Dem Vice-Presidential Candidate of 2004 and your Dem Presidential Candidate of 2000.

Other great Americans from the South (just so you know who else you insult with your short-sightedness)

Hank Aaron
Rosa Parks
George S. Patton
Andy Griffith
'Black' Jack Pershing
Louis Armstrong
Stephen F. Austin
John Grisham
Gene Autry
Woody Guthrie
Pocahontas
Edgar Allan Poe
James K. Polk
William Wyatt
Henry Harrison
Elvis Presley
Daniel Boone
Patrick Henry
Jim Bowie
John Henry "Doc" Holliday
Sam Houston
Will Rogers
Paul "Bear" Bryant
Howard Hughes
Wilma Rudolph
Jimmy Carter
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson
Babe Ruth
George Washington
Jesse Chisholm
Thomas Jefferson
Sequoyah
William Clark
Andrew Johnson
Henry Clay
Lyndon B. Johnson
Bill Clinton
Andrew Jackson
Barbara Jordan
Ty Cobb
Michael Jordan
Helen Keller
Richard Taylor
Francis Scott Key
Zachary Taylor
Gordo Cooper
Martin Luther King, Jr
Jim Thorpe
William Harrison
Davy Crocket
Robert E. Lee
William B. Travis
Harry S. Truman
Merewether Lewis
Harriet Tubman
Jefferson Davis
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons)
James Madison
Loreta Velazquez
Frederick Douglass
James Buchanan
William Faulkner
Booker T. Washington
George Washington
Nathan Bedford
Ava Gardner
James Monroe
Hank Williams
Dizzy Gillespie
Audie Murphy
Woodrow Wilson
Charles Goodnight
Chester Nimitz
James Oglethorpe
Chuck Yeager
Quanah Parker

But some here at the DCP in their ignorance find it amusing to make fun of a culture and a life-style that they could never understand.

The South used to be full of democrats...perhaps the kind of profiling and stereotyping Polly Sigh and others promote is the reason you Democrats have lost the South.

Indy whistlin' Dixie...

So long Defeatist Dems...you bring it upon yourselves.

Remember the Dem Credo above.

Bigotry is NOT an American principle.

Got Hubris?

Indeed...you do.

Cool for Fe! I have a friend who attends the Black Theater Fest pretty regularly (I believe it's biennial), in fact she may have gone this year. She always tries to get me to go. I would love to one year.

Posted by: Indy_for_America at August 7, 2005 11:39 PM

Indy...

As a fellow proud Texan...

I mean... all of those people were AMERICANS, too... and Robert E. Lee... Jefferson Davis...they are NOT something to be proud of. I'm certainly not suggesting that we should pretend they never happened, but they should not be on a list of “great Americans.” It defeats the purpose of that list. If you want that 150 year old steriotype to go away, dont honor people who are representative of it.

You said "the south used to be full of Democrats." But the loss of THOSE Democrats is NO LOSS. That's like Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond. Dixiecrats. I don't look back pleasantly to the days when the south was full of Democrats. The party platform was different and based on segregation! Remember what LBJ said when he signed the civil rights bill, "I have lost the south for a generation." (He was a little short...) If that's shooting ourselves in the foot, then add that to the list of many reasons why I'm proud to be a Democrat. On the other hand, Indy, you are partly right... you and I and many others are proof that all southerners are not Trent Lott. So if we want to take back the south, we can't act like that.

But please... we're all Americans. Sectionalism doesn’t come just from degrading other parts of the country, but also from elevating your own above the Union as a whole.
here, you'll like this:

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
~Abraham Lincoln, first inaugural address

Truth Shall Prevail
I'm reading through the posts - good work you did today. You had done your homework over time & it's paying off.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 7, 2005 10:37 PM

Thanks, DiAnne,

The most exciting part was having them tell me they know something is wrong - very wrong, and in some instances they struggle with ideas that were planted in their brains by corporate media spin. Did I mention I told them about the major television networks, spin, propoganda, and who owned the networks?

Like, one of the lies she wrestled with was that she thought the left, the Democrats, are godless athiests who want nothing but a large orgie across America. They want to "ban us from prayer, take the bible away from us." That gave
me a chance to tell her about the constitution and how important it is to keep church and state seperate, and why. And on and on.....

I couldn't believe I had actually acquired that much knowledge in a year's time, and could lay it out in terms that anybody could understand. I didn't have to be witty, or extremely articulate, I just told my story, and it made sense. And they were Verrry Interested, hungry even, for the information. We had to be kicked out of the church at the end of the afternoon so they could lock up, our table was still feverishly discussing this stuff.

The lady who is a minister but doesn't have her own church right now, with the two post graduate degrees, said this about the Christians who drank the Kool Aid and bought the lie hook line and sinker --(we were each one of them)- -

"We were duped."

YAYYY!!!! Now, if we just had the staff to do it, we could reach every church in America. People will wake up - it takes about a year from the first time they hear it. They are very ugly and defensive at first, and may attack verbally. But, it gets their attention, and they start paying attention, then they see it for themselves and start doing their own homework, then they are convinced.

I know I talked to that same lady in the church parking lot last fall. Her name is Jane.

Jane said she thinks the government's plan is to strip us of everything, then control us. She said "If I couldn't see it for myself in alot of instances, I would think I was nuts and paranoid". I said "Welcome to my world".

I KNOW we could reach at least 1/3, if not 1/2 the religious and the fundies. And I think we could do it by offering the 95/10 plan as a large alternative to abortion. It could be presented as an alternative plan, and nothing would need to be said about Roe vs. Wade, either way. It would seem to me that alot of people would be thrilled to hear about a pro-active program to eliminate the need for so many abortions. Then they would feel their consciences were clear to vote Dem.
And we could kick corrupt government out of Washington D.C.

The people are not stupid. They are uneducated. How can we get a group started that could set up mailings to churches, clergy, the same way Rove has done? Who will do it? How can it be paid for? That is the ONLY way to reach rural America, and (if the '04 election was WON, not stolen), rural America decided '04 for Bush. (Urban America wasn't as strong as it has been in the past, either. Some margins were thin.)

When will the Dems get organized?

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at August 8, 2005 12:47 AM

Great work, again! I supose it starts with people like us... one person at a time! Have you read "What's the Matter with Kansas"?

Native,

No, I haven't read it. I was living "What's the matter with North Dakota". LOL.

Oncall recommended it too, and I think (although I am not sure) it was a book they read here at the DCP in their book club in the forum. I have heard very good things about it.

Thanks.

Yes, Native, thank you for the kind words, but the biggest excitement for me is to see the scales coming off the eyes!!!! Totally AWESOME!

"What's the matter with North Dakota"

lol, Truth. It seems we're experiencing a bit of "What's the Matter with Texas," here, ourselves.

I'm going to start the Kansas book very soon-- I have a book discussion group on it in a few weeks. Should be exciting!

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1015438
Peter Jennings Dies at 67

Wall Street Journal: 'Liberal press pack' owe Novak apology

The media hive is once again stinging columnist Bob Novak, this time after he uttered an expletive and walked off the set during a live CNN program last Thursday. Since our name was taken in vain during the program, we thought we should correct the record," the Wall Street Journal's editorial page begins in Monday editions. Their editorial follows.

#
"The conservative columnist was discussing the Florida Senate race on a show that is supposed to be about political strategy. But his counterpart, Democratic operative James Carville, turned ad hominem and questioned Mr. Novak's motives. "He's got to show these right wingers that he's got a backbone, you know. It's why The Wall Street Journal editorial page is watching you. Show 'em that you're tough." Mr. Novak replied, "Well, I think that's bull----, and I hate that. Just let it go." He then walked off the set.

"Mr. Novak has since appropriately apologized for losing his cool, but Mr. Carville is lucky he didn't get punched in the nose. After more than four decades criticizing both Republicans and Democrats, Mr. Novak doesn't need to apologize to anyone for his sincerity. Mr. Carville is the professional political wrestler, but CNN has asked only Mr. Novak to take a vacation.

"We suppose we should thank Mr. Carville for his endorsement of our influence. But far from "watching" Mr. Novak, we've defended him while the rest of the press corps has assailed him for doing his job and breaking the news about Valerie Plame's role in getting her husband Joe Wilson a job as a CIA consultant.

"As long ago as February 2004 ("The Novak Exception"), we warned that the media would regret their demand for a special counsel to discover Mr. Novak's sources, since that same counsel would eventually turn on them. And so the special counsel has, sending Judith Miller of the New York Times to jail for contempt. The members of the liberal press pack owe Mr. Novak an apology, not vice versa.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Wall_Street_Journal_Liberal_press_pack_owe_Novak_apo_0808.html

R.I.P. Peter Jennings

Exclusive: CIA Commander: We Let bin Laden Slip Away

Newsweek

Aug. 15, 2005 issue - During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. The president called his opponent's allegation "the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking." Bush asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain hideaway along the Afghan border.

But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsen's remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."

In his book—titled "Jawbreaker"—the decorated career CIA officer criticizes Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department for not providing enough support to the CIA and the Pentagon's own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora, says Berntsen's lawyer, Roy Krieger. (Berntsen would not divulge the book's specifics, saying he's awaiting CIA clearance.) That backs up other recent accounts, including that of military author Sean Naylor, who calls Tora Bora a "strategic disaster" because the Pentagon refused to deploy a cordon of conventional forces to cut off escaping Qaeda and Taliban members. Maj. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman, says the problem at Tora Bora "was not necessarily just the number of troops."

Berntsen's book gives, by contrast, a heroic portrayal of CIA activities at Tora Bora and in the war on terror. Ironically, he has sued the agency over what he calls unacceptable delays in approving his book—a standard process for ex-agency employees describing classified matters. "They're just holding the book," which is scheduled for October release, he says. "CIA officers, Special Forces and U.S. air power drove the Taliban out in 70 days. The CIA has taken roughly 80 days to clear my book." Jennifer Millerwise, a CIA spokeswoman, says Berntsen's "timeline is not accurate," adding that he submitted his book as an ex-employee only in mid-June. "We take seriously our goal of responding quickly."

—Michael Hirsh

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8853000/site/newsweek/

If you need a good laugh watch this video.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/wmv/bushexplained.wmv

Fe, you totally rock... Congrats on the great coverage. Wish I could have seen your show. Damn.

MOnKey,
BWHHAAAAAAAAA!! That is one of the funniest things I have read this morning. Poor Count Novacula. It's satire, right?

Nice work Fe! I am going to have to get down there next year. 40 productions to choose from. That's amazing.

Posted by: Indy_for_America at August 7, 2005 11:39 PM

You cannot even progress past an offensive stereotype that is over 150 years old.

Regressives is more like it.

The Civil War was the most brutal and painful divide in our Nation's history and yet some here find it entertainment fodder.

You have lost one of your strongest supporters and Patriots.

I will always fight for America...it is my homeland.

In the South are the wonderful warm hospitible people Polly Sigh's Post degrades are my family and friends.

The South is my home and always will be.

I will no longer fight for or with those that have such blind double-standards.

Who needs the Neocons to divide our Nation...some of you Democrats do very well on your own.

Those who have not lived in the South would not understand...and never will.

The greatest Leaders of this Nation are from the South...from Washington and Jefferson...Madison and Monroe to LBJ...Carter to Clinton...and Lance Armstrong...our latest world hero from the South...and lest you forget...your Dem Vice-Presidential Candidate of 2004 and your Dem Presidential Candidate of 2000.

*********************************

Boy do I weary of this misplaced Southern pride. Let us be clear about the South's "unusual and peculiar" history: it is a history and legacy of slavery, segregation, racial discrimination and violence. In the 1800's the South was unwilling to give up its institution of slavery and the South started a war with the North to settle the question of slavery and the extension of slavery to the new states.

FOTUNATELY, FOR THE NATION, THE NORTH WON THIS WAR AND THE SOUTH LOST.

But after the Civil War, the South continued to cling to its tradition of racism, segregation, violence and discrimination. And it wasn't until the 1960's that the North with Southern Blacks brought the South kicking and screaming into the 20th century with the voting rights act, abolition of segregation and anti-poverty legislation. The North had to, for the second time in American history, give the South a strict lesson in morality and decency.

Currently, the white Southern racists (Strom Thurmond, Jessie Helms, Trent Lott etc...) have swarmed to the Republican party and taken it over. The Republican party is now the party of racism, intolerance and hatred, and it dominates the South now.

If you need a good laugh watch this video.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/wmv/bushexplained.wmv
Posted by: oncall at August 8, 2005 09:08 AM

=======================
Oh my god... it's hilarious...thanks, OC.

Hey all:

First of all, I am back in the Bay Area where the temperature of a North Carolina air-conditioned hotel room is our actual climate.

Our show, the Medea Project was well-received--and we got great props (standing for the Medea ensemble) and great houses. Furthermore, it was wonderful to be so welcomed, and the talent performing at the festival was spectacular. The Jackie Wilson show was all high-energy music and the singing was phenomenal.

More than anything, though--it was the hospitality of the Winston-Salem people and the smile that is a warm Southern night--that was remarkable.

One disturbing thing however was the heat wave (probably due to global warming, who knows). The prolonged heat wave has caused a number of copperhead bites with town dwellers. Frogs have come closer into town, and there have been bird attacks on people. How's that for the first hints of an environmental catastrophe?

Anyway-back home and ready to face the week...

One more thing:

C C H Pounder came to our show and she loved my work!! After she said that, I told her I was having an out-of-body experience!!!

Fe
Forgot to say "break a leg" but sounds like you did well!!!!

If you need a good laugh watch this video.

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/wmv/bushexplained.wmv
Posted by: oncall at August 8, 2005 09:08 AM

hahahaha! Thanks, oncall!