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The Charlotte Observer published the results of their analysis of a couple internal VA reports on the timeliness of care being offered to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans on 10-21-2007. Here are some of the highlights of the article about their analysis which is detailed in an interactive feature on their site:

The analysis of 283,000 recent outpatient appointments showed that the VA scheduled 93 percent within 30 days, a key measure of the agency's ability to meet demand. That left 20,500 waiting longer.

At issue: Patients needing critical care accounted for 10.5 percent of total appointments scheduled, but 20 percent of those with longer waits.

The Observer's findings could signal that the VA is struggling to care for the neediest of the new veterans.

...Most VA hospitals, including all six in the Carolinas, showed lags in delivering outpatient care for serious problems, according to the newspaper's analysis. For example:

• Twenty-four percent of appointments nationwide for traumatic brain injury care exceeded the 30-day mark this summer.

• At the Salisbury VA hospital, 61 percent of appointments for the seriously wounded were scheduled more than 30 days out this summer, one of the worst records nationwide.

• At the Charleston VA in South Carolina, 13 of 14 patients slated to be seen for brain injury waited more than a month. At 93 percent, that was the worst record nationwide.

TRUTH

As I was sitting in the Dirksen Hearing Room a few weeks ago, listening to the testimony of the folks from the GAO, I had one of those moments: you know…when you feel your head explode, or search for a nearby wall upon which to bang it??

Sen. Norm Coleman was asking the GAO guy why the numbers in his report about the success of the SURGE were different from what he had been seeing.

Oh, said Mr. Walker from the GAO. You saw the OFFICIAL numbers, My report is based on the UNofficial numbers.

OOHHHH, I thought to myself. There are TWO sets of numbers! At least! Holy Orwell! I wonder which ones are the ACTUAL numbers, as opposed to the FANTASY numbers?

No one else in the room, which was crowded, even blinked.

This past week, we were informed, by the New York Times, no less, that there were dueling memos about torture. Larry Craig said he was no longer guilty, while Marion Jones said she was no longer innocent.

I have tried to believe in at least two impossible things before breakfast, but it seems that even the impossible things I believe are, somehow, possible by the time the toast is burned…

But the most impossible thing that has become possible came with the death and story about Ciara Durkin, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

CBS/AP) Exactly how Ciara Durkin died remains a mystery. The Army National Guard soldier from Massachusetts was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in Afghanistan last week, and now her family is demanding answers from the military. Initially the Pentagon reported that Durkin, part of a finance unit deployed to Afghanistan in November 2006, had been killed in action, but then revised its statement to read she had died of injuries “suffered from a non-combat related incident” at Bagram Airfield. The statement had no specifics and said the circumstances are under investigation. Durkin had a desk job doing payroll in an office about three miles inside the secure Bagram Air Base. About 90 minutes after she left work last Friday, her family says she was found dead near a chapel on the base with a single gunshot wound to the head.

The reason my head went a-spinnin’ at the news is that it sounded horribly familiar. Juan Torres’ son John was also shot in the head, at Bagram, and John was…part of a finance unit. Doing payroll.

Canavan told the Quincy, Mass. Patriot Ledger on Wednesday that when her sister was home three weeks ago, she told her about something she had come across that raised some concern with her: “She was in the finance unit and she said, ‘I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.’” Canavan revealed that Durkin said if anything happened to her, to make sure it was investigated.

Rest of the story here.

John told his father the same thing, several hours before he was killed.

MichiganGirl at Kos has a story up speculating about the link.

OK, so we already know that we are dealing with a bunch of liars and that the core of our government is rotten, rotten. And we know about Pat Tillman, and Abu Ghraib, and torture at Guantanamo and secret prisons in faraway lands, and the cooking of the surge numbers, and the Downing Street minutes, and Colin Powell lying at the United Nations, and oh so many head-banging moments.

What is it going to take?? I am reminded of what our reporter says at the end of the play FEAR UP: Stories from Baghdad and Guantanamo:

Reporter: We all have the potential for the behavior we’ve seen in the war on terror and we’re all capable of more altruistic or cooperative behavior. And I believe that confronting these extreme situations is itself an act of hope because in doing that, we are saying that there’s an alternative. We can do better. I believe we’ve let them have their way without fierce enough protest. I only wish my pen was sharper and my words tougher.

People, we must get tougher. Our protests must be fiercer. Our future depends upon it.

What does it take to get you to pick up something off the sidewalk?

Money does it for me--I'll even go after that lucky penny. And I'll stop for any book that still has a cover on it and isn't completely water-logged from being out in the rain.

There's always a certain little burst of joy when I find something unclaimed on the ground, a little ray of fortune bursting through whatever clouds there might be that day.

Things are a little different in Iraq, according to a story in yesterday's Washington Post. On the streets of Iraq, if you happen to pick up the wrong thing lying on the ground, you get a little "kicker"--a high-powered sniper bullet in the head.

Blackwater has been in the news once again, this time because of questionable circumstances in an event which resulted in death and wounding of civilians. In more recent news, they are also suspected of arms smuggling, which they are denying. This story has grown astronomically over the weekend, to where it is looking more like a crisis situation between Iraq and the US. Perhaps now the public will take more notice of the whole concept of private security contracting and whether there is oversight.

I first heard of Blackwater, like many people, when four of their members were ambushed in Fallujah and their corpses were dragged through the streets, then hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. I had also heard about Dyncorp, with members alleged to have been involved in rapes in Kosovo with no legal way to prosecute them, and that they were from Texas with conservative government ties. Prior to that, I had known about "mercenaries" or "soldiers of fortune" and generally thought of them as macho rightwing adventures with a thirst for blood. They are also known as "cowboys" or "hired guns."

More curious than ever, knowing that these contractors remain in Iraq in huge numbers yet are seldom mentioned when there is talk of a drawdown in forces in Iraq, I solicited questions from friends via email, and we came up with some basics. The links we collected are at the bottom of the thread and there will be many more by the time this is published.

Who are Blackwater?
They are the world's most powerful mercenary firm, and growing fast. They are a private army, a private military company, called "mercenaries" by some. They are paid for with tax dollars. On their website, their Vision is: To support security, peace, freedom, and democracy everywhere.

Who founded Blackwater?
Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist megamillionaire ex-Navy SEAL named Erik Prince. He is hereditarily wealthy and his family bankrolls right-wing causes. They are based in the wilderness of North Carolina, named Blackwater because of the region they are based in.

(keep reading for more)

The American store is being quietly robbed by a bunch of slick, pinky-ring wearing lobbyists and corporate hacks, and Congress doesn't give a damn. In fact, they're holding the door open and driving the getaway car.

Glenn Greenwald has written a great article for Salon on the proposed legislation that will wipe the slate clean for any telecom companies that helped the government spy illegally on U.S. citizens. Newsweek also reported on this pending legislation.

If you've got a strong stomach, you can read the Salon article here:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/22/telecom_immunity/index.html

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
William O. Douglas

[The above was the opening of FEAR UP: Stories from Baghdad and Guanatanamo.]

When George Bush was elected in 2000, who among us would have said that seven years hence that we would be looking at the loss of civil liberties and a terrible war? Who would have predicted that the Congress would have given him the same power Adolf Hitler had: to round up "enemy combatants", as defined by him?

So often, people say "Well, I knew." But, of course no one did. All we can do is look at historical patterns and project ahead based on past experiences.

My friend Linda and I have played a kind of game over the past year: What year are we in? Is it 1932? 1933? The other night we decided it is 1935, the year the Nuremberg Laws were passed. Perhaps this is hyperbole, but how will we know, except when we look back?

This led to a discussion about whether or people in 1935 understood that 1936 was coming. The Berlin Olympics' focus on Hitler and German glory may have been hoped for, but did anyone understand what the price of German glory might be? They could not have predicted Kristallnacht, in 1938, surely.

[Image of Dr. Martin Luther King]

Here's a link to CNN's fairly extensive coverage of the protest march in Jena, Louisiana today.

I met one of the attorneys for the Jena 6 at Yearly Kos. She was part of a panel called Rebuilding New Orleans, but she wanted to speak about the Jena 6, and we were grateful she did. She paid her own way to come and speak to us and ask for our help in getting this story out and pushing it to the media.

It's shocking to see the pockets of powerful and ugly bigotry that still exist in our country, and that they are still well supported by the structures of local law enforcement and government in areas like Jena, Louisiana.

When I was at Yearly Kos in the beginning of August, this story was far from well known. Now there's a huge protest going on there all day.

This story is another example of how the power of people and the blog community, can serve to shine a bright light on an injustice, and push the media to cover it.

First this:

Now this:

The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom."

The religious courses are led by Muslim clerics who "teach out of a moderate doctrine," Stone said, according to the transcript of a conference call he held from Baghdad with a group of defense bloggers. Such schooling "tears apart" the arguments of al-Qaeda, such as "Let's kill innocents," and helps to "bring some of the edge off" the detainees, he said.

[...]

Stone said his staff conducts polygraph tests for detainees who promise to change after undergoing the religious training program. "We were trying to figure out if they're messing with us. . . . You're not talking about radicals going to choirboys." But he also added that they're succeeding in countering extremists in the facilities. "We're busting them down, we're making whole moderate compounds that didn't exist before."

Stone described a sort of religious insurgency that occurred at one detention facility on Sept. 2. "We had a compound of moderates for the first time overtake . . . extremists. It's never happened before. Found them, identified them, threw them up against the fence and shaved their frickin' beards off of them. . . . I mean, that is historic."

I see some people paid attention in Spanish History class.

I'm sure this will all work out really, really well this time.

There is a war going on my friends and it's not just the one in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is the war against 'We the People', the common folk, the middle class, and the poor.

Just because it's been happening under the radar doesn't mean it isn't important. For years we have watched as jobs were outsourced to slave labor overseas. For years we have watched as corporations and those in power tried to break up labor unions.

Since Reagan's time they have largely been successful in doing so.

But now, the latest assault is against American truckers and the American people and very few even knew it was coming.

I know I didn't!

But today, my brother called. He is a trucker, and a self-employed businessman, and he was telling me about the new border crossing plan that just took affect last week, and I didn't even know about it!

Last week unbeknownst to most of us, Bush started a program aimed at bringing in cheap truck drivers from Mexico and allowing them free access to roam far and wide across our country. (To be fair to President Bush, the law was actually passed in 2001 as part of NAFTA and he signed it into law.)

But let me tell you, this is a grave and dangerous mistake.

[Photo of Shirley Shor painting "Leaning, 2005", by Gallery Paul Anglim]

Self loathing is an ugly thing. The despair that it can cause in the human heart can wreak havoc on the world around. And this, sadly, is where Senator Larry Craig seems to be.

Last night, in what I can only think of as a sad and desperate act, Senator Craig (R-ID) indicated, through a spokesman and others, that he wanted to perhaps, rethink, his position on his resignation.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital, told The Associated Press.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight _ and stay in the Senate," Smith said.

Someone should tell him that the Republican leadership doesn't do takesies backsies, and that public life doesn't provide for do overs. Especially not when the news of your decision comes, not just from your spokesperson, but from the fact that you left a message, on stranger's phone machine, thinking it was your high-priced Washington lawyer's phone machine.

Clearly, stress is having an effect on Craig's judgement, and the pressure he is feeling is evident in his voice. The level of tension and his desperation to hold on to the fiction he has created for himself is tragic.

But the tragedy is compounded when one thinks of the effects of Craig's many votes during his 27-year Senate Career on GLTB issues.

I can only speculate that what is in Craig's mind, which is that he does not see himself as gay. He sees himself as having deviant urges that must, somehow, be suppressed, both in himself, and others. And when that twisted thinking is applied to his voting in the Senate, he turns the tragedy on everyone else.

How does this tragedy manifest itself on a daily basis? Here's one small example: Larry Craig married a woman with three small children. He subsequently adopted those children. To all observers, he has been a steadfast and loving parent to them. So much so, in fact, that one of them appeared on Good Morning America this morning to give public statements of support from himself and his two siblings. But that parental relationship never would have happened in a Larry Craig legislated world, because he opposed gay and lesbian adoption. And as a result, those children likely would have been deprived of the parent/child relationship that quite obviously developed to the benefit of all.

That is the tragedy of the closeted life expanded into a legislative life.

It's a hard lesson to learn, but maybe now Craig will understand that the legislature, be it state or federal, has no place in the bedrooms of consenting adults. And should this public fiasco result in him remaining in the Senate, one would hope that he would bring some newfound compassion for the persecution that homosexuals endure in our society, and reevaluate his Senate votes on these issues.

Of course, I won't be holding my breath, but I can always hold out hope that people will learn from their own personal tragedies.

Craig would say he supports freedom, but what freedom is there in constantly feeling as though you have to hide a most basic part of your self?

[Editor's Note: Link to Talking Points Memos Story added after initial posting of this story. Further note: changes made to correct grammatical and spelling error, incorrect links, and other coffee deprived errors. Apologies for the confusationess. ]

I approached the tower guard site, between 14th and 15th Sts. NW at Constitution (so ironic for the main thoroughfare from the White House to Congress, no?) from the southeast.

Coming closer, I could see that the setup was brilliant, set against the Washington Monument, or the Dept. of Commerce, the White House, or the Smithsonian Museum of American History, it is a small reminder that, in the midst of business-as-usual and self-congratulatory quotidian activities, greater concerns are at hand.

It can get pretty contentious in the peace and justice movement, and the same kinds of tensions exist on the ground and inside-the-beltway as exist within our small community here: incrementalism vs. revolution; support for what might happen vs. holding Members accountable; in-your-face actions that get you arrested and/or fined vs. calm discussions with the powerful wherein everyone is polite and not much changes.

But there is one part of the movement that gives me hope and I want to emphasize it to all of us who despair. That is the Iraq Vets themselves.

The veterans of this unholy war are speaking up and acting out. A few months ago, Geoff Millard and Garrett Repenhegan and a few others put on desert fatigues and took fake rifles and skulked around the Mall, acting out some of what they had done in Iraq. People knew it was theatre, but they made their points.

The effort is not new, as most of us know here, the Vietnam War was, in the end, brought to a halt not because of hippies in the streets, or students and professors on the campuses, or John and Yoko singing "All we are saying...", but because the soldiers began to refuse to fight poor villagers.

The film, Sir, No Sir, is a reminder of what DOES work. "We came to understand that the war would not end until soldiers put down their weapons and refused to fight", the narrator says. Watch the trailer, at least.

This week, on the National Mall, a young Iraq vet has constructed a tower, where he sits 24/7, in a vigil to bring attention to the Stop Loss program. He is garnering publicity and changing hearts and minds.

He even had the chance to speak directly to Alberto Gonzales as Gonzales announced his resignation. According to witnesses, Gonzales stood in front of Evan, while Evan recounted the horrors of the war and the torture program, with his hands folded and his head down.

We all have to listen now.

Can anyone stop Bush from going to war with Iran?

In anguish, I recommend Glen Greenwald's column in Salon today, in which he makes as clear a case as I have seen of how rapidly Bush is moving towards war with Iran. He was inspired by what he says "might actually be the most disturbing speech" of Bush's presidency.

Greenwald argues that Congress is incapable of stopping this next war. I wish I did not think he was right on this point, but unless there is bold, sustained leadership, it appears highly likely that Bush will launch a devastating air attack on Iran designed to literally "bomb them back into the Stone Ages."

Last week’s revelation that our Pentagon (it does belong to us, the taxpayers, after all), had paid two sisters in South Carolina $998,798 for shipping for shipping two 19-cent washers to Fort Bliss earlier this year has provoked the usual barrage of outraged clucking.

But before we get our moral outrage fully in gear, I’d like to propose a small toast to the creativity of the Corley sisters, wishing them well on their tour of the federal prison system. After all, what did they do that any red-blooded market fundamentalist might feel called upon to do, once they realized that the Pentagon had created an automated payment system for any shipments to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” ?

It’s as if the sisters watched the first half of Office Space, when our heroes cook up a scheme to skim the rounding errors off every transaction, a sum they are sure will never be noticed. But the Corleys apparently did not finish watching the movie. Unlike the cubicle stiffs in Office Space, they reportedly started very small, and when the Pentagon paid their early bills, they sent in bigger bills. As one federal agent put it, “As time went on they got more aggressive in the amounts they put in.''

[Photo credit: Denver Open Source]

Is it ever acceptable to politicize tragedy, such as the Minneapolis bridge collapse, or the cave-in at the Utah mine?

Hell, yes. And I'm not afraid to put it out there as just that. I am absolutely willing to discuss these events as part of politics.

Why? Because it was politics that, if it didn't downright cause these tragedies to happen, it certainly aided and abetted the degree to which these tragic events were magnified. And it is politics that bears at least some responsibility for the deadly consequences that may continue to arise from both of these examples.

Well, we've finally made it. Thanks to the sadistic leadership of the Bush administration, the United States has officially become a third world country - complete with a struggling, terrified public, a tyrannical hologram for a leader, and a crumbling infrastructure.

An infrastructure that began to officially crumble this week in Minnesota. And when I say "began," I mean we're just getting started.

Most of you know that occasionally I am asked to analyze the movement behavior of public figures for the mainstream media. I use something called Laban Movement Analysis. It is a nonjudgemental approach to analysis, although obviously interpretive conclusions can be drawn, mostly about how to improve communicative style or performance abilities.

So when Casey called me and asked me to take a look at Vice-President Dick Cheney on Larry King Live the other day, I was concerned about my abilities to overlook my judgments about his behavior and simply look at how he communicates.

[A couple of weeks ago, I posted a threader titled Two Funerals and A Waiting in which I quote four Erie Times-News reporters who filed some particularly well-written stories about fallen soldiers and their families in that small city on the edge of a great lake in what is sometimes referred to as "Flyover Country."

It takes a long time spent living lives of increasingly-unquiet desperation to finally make people from the silent majority stand up to be counted and to write letters like this one. That's why I think it's important to include it here as a followup to my earlier threader, because these are the people who we really need to listen to. These are the people who we really need to reach out and touch, if we're ever going to end this illegal, immoral war and depose the tyrants currently occupying the West Wing and the Pentagon...]

[Image credit: Wichita State College]

It seems that many a Republican presidential candidate are finding themselves with they YouTube jitters, and the CNN YouTube debate may not happen at all.

1. Why do you think the candidates are trying to avoid this format of debate?

2. What question would you ask a Republican candidate via You Tube that you think would have a hope in hell of getting through the selection process?

3. Do you agree that there should be, as some have suggested, an American Idol type call in voting immediately following the each of the future Democratic and Republican debates, to get people used to voting for political candidates and not just entertainment stars?

4. Did you think that question number three was a real question? It wasn't. I made up the whole thing, especially the "some people have suggested part". See how easy it is to be a journalist? All you have to do is add "some people" into any question, and it can make any idiotic assertion look like a plausible and reasonable question to ask. Right up there with asking Barack Obama if he's "black enough".

5. What the hell does "black enough" mean?

6. Anyone here think that Alberto is trying to get himself out of perjury charges by pretending to spill the beans on "other intelligence activities" as a cover?

7. And is it the height of incompetence to suggest that you have committed a lesser sin than perjury by admitting instead that you were talking about a whole other program of spying, so heinous in its illegality, that half of the Justice Department was ready to take a walk if they didn't knock it off?

8. Was the Hillary/Obama "fight", carried on thoughout last week to the interest of almost no one, utterly stupid and vapid?

9. Anyone know who did the John Edwards "hair video"? It's an education in itself how to react to this sort of absolutely idiotic nonsense, namely the hubub about his haircut. You respond with ridicule. If you missed it, it's here for viewing. And by viewing, I mean viewing in non-partisan terms, but as a piece of strategy and response in today's media culture. I don't endorse any candidate for office. I endorse solid political thinking.

10. Will Solicitor General Paul Clement appoint a special prosecutor to the DOJ USA firings investigation? The best I can come up with is, maybe. I am positive that if Ted Olsen were still the Solicitor General of the United States, he would and do so swiftly. As much as I dislike Olsen's stand on any number of social issues, I have always admired him as a good legal scholar who loves the law. Same goes for James Comey, and many, if not most of the employees at the justice department. So the question becomes, does Paul Clement love the law, or does he love some other ideology which ascends some folks above the reach of the Rule of Law for its namesake?

BONUS QUESTION: Now that Inslee is putting a Gonazales impeachment bill in the hopper, has Harry Reid thought about the problem of President Bush using the August recess to dump Gonzales and do a recess appointment of a new Attorney General without any Congressional oversight? Hmmm...

I have questions. You have answers. Pick a question or ten and let's get the discussion going.

[Image credit: Wichita State College]

It seems that many a Republican presidential candidate are finding themselves with they YouTube jitters, and the CNN YouTube debate may not happen at all.

1. Why do you think the candidates are trying to avoid this format of debate?

2. What question would you ask a Republican candidate via You Tube that you think would have a hope in hell of getting through the selection process?

3. Do you agree that there should be, as some have suggested, an American Idol type call in voting immediately following the each of the future Democratic and Republican debates, to get people used to voting for political candidates and not just entertainment stars?

4. Did you think that question number three was a real question? It wasn't. I made up the whole thing, especially the "some people have suggested part". See how easy it is to be a journalist? All you have to do is add "some people" into any question, and it can make any idiotic assertion look like a plausible and reasonable question to ask. Right up there with asking Barack Obama if he's "black enough".

5. What the hell does "black enough" mean?

6. Anyone here think that Alberto is trying to get himself out of perjury charges by pretending to spill the beans on "other intelligence activities" as a cover?

7. And is it the height of incompetence to suggest that you have committed a lesser sin than perjury by admitting instead that you were talking about a whole other program of spying, so heinous in its illegality, that half of the Justice Department was ready to take a walk if they didn't knock it off?

8. Was the Hillary/Obama "fight", carried on thoughout last week to the interest of almost no one, utterly stupid and vapid?

9. Anyone know who did the John Edwards "hair video"? It's an education in itself how to react to this sort of absolutely idiotic nonsense, namely the hubub about his haircut. You respond with ridicule. If you missed it, it's here for viewing. And by viewing, I mean viewing in non-partisan terms, but as a piece of strategy and response in today's media culture. I don't endorse any candidate for office. I endorse solid political thinking.

10. Will Solicitor General Paul Clement appoint a special prosecutor to the DOJ USA firings investigation? The best I can come up with is, maybe. I am positive that if Ted Olsen were still the Solicitor General of the United States, he would and do so swiftly. As much as I dislike Olsen's stand on any number of social issues, I have always admired him as a good legal scholar who loves the law. Same goes for James Comey, and many, if not most of the employees at the justice department. So the question becomes, does Paul Clement love the law, or does he love some other ideology which ascends some folks above the reach of the Rule of Law for its namesake?

BONUS QUESTION: Now that Inslee is putting a Gonazales impeachment bill in the hopper, has Harry Reid thought about the problem of President Bush using the August recess to dump Gonzales and do a recess appointment of a new Attorney General without any Congressional oversight? Hmmm...

I have questions. You have answers. Pick a question or ten and let's get the discussion going.

The widely read and often acerbic New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd -- who is particularly well-versed in the internal psychology of the extended Bush family dynasty, and who as a result of that knowledge is not exactly one of Bush 43's greatest fans in the mainstream media's polipunditbobbleheadosphere -- wrote a rather interesting column last week in which she shared her acutely non-progressive siblings' gradual changes of heart regarding the corrosive regime of our current Decider-In-Thief.

What MoDo had to say in that column is especially relevant to us here in the DCP community, since several of us have reported encountering similar situations in our own extended families over the past several years...

W.’s odyssey is one of the oddest in history, a black sheep who leapt above expectations and then crashed back down. It must be a crushing burden for President Bush to have wrought the opposite of what he intended in so many profound ways.

For me, one of the most amazing reversals brought about by W.’s reign of error is this: He may have turned my sister into a Democrat.

You knew this story was coming:

A turtle was happily swimming along a river when a scorpion hailed it from the shore.

"Dear friend turtle!" called the scorpion. "Please let me climb upon your back and swim me to the other side of the river!"

"No," replied the turtle, "for if I do, you shall sting me, and I shall die."

"Nonsense!" replied the scorpion. "If I kill you in the middle of the river, you shall sink, and I shall drown and die with you."

The turtle thought this over, and saw the truth of the scorpion's statement. He let it upon his back and began swimming towards the other side of the river. Halfway across, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck.

"Why have you stung me?!" cried the turtle as his body began to stiffen. "Now you shall die as well!"

"Because it is in my nature," replied the scorpion as the turtle sank beneath the waters.

****

Well, it is a cloudy and overly warm morning in America. The Republicans are behaving as the scorpions they are and the Democrats are trying to be wily turtles, as usual.

But let us deconstruct the tale:

(Times-News photo of Laura Buchan by Vivian Johnson)


Erie, Pennsylvania is a small city on the edge of a great lake. It is a quintessentially American community -- so much so, in fact, that it was designated an All-American City by Richard Nixon in 1972. Like many such cities, it has gone through some painful changes over the last few decades as its old industrial economy gradually gave way to a 21st-century technology/service/tourism economy instead. But Erie still typifies what most Americans look for in their home towns: wide streets, good schools, low crime rates, affordable housing, and a generally pleasant quality of life for its citizens.

And like the residents of most American home towns outside the Beltway and between the polarized left and right coast megalopolises, people in Erie are basically centrist by nature. They may differ widely on specific individual issues, but for the most part they share common values and common beliefs with each other and with the hundreds of millions of other Americans who live in what is sometimes referred to as "flyover country."

Politics is something that people do care about in Erie, at least when it impacts their daily lives in some particular way, but they don't obsess about it. They may lean left or right, but they do so with their feet planted firmly in the middle of the road. During the 2004 race, George Bush's single largest campaign-rally audience was in Erie. But in 2004, Erie voters chose John Kerry over George Bush by a solid margin. Professional pundits and politicians and prognosticators do well to pay attention to what happens in Erie, because it is and always has been a bellwether burg for how the American electorate looks at the world.

That's why today, while Senators on both sides of the aisle are busy debating and voting on the Levin-Reed Amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would begin to put the brakes on the Bush administration's ongoing escalation of its dishonest war in Iraq, it's appropriate for us to look at the human costs of making war as seen through the eyes of quintessentially average Americans, as told in the words of four reporters for the award-winning Erie Times-News newspaper.

Two funerals in two weeks. Two flag-draped coffins. Two men who gave the last full measure of devotion for the country they chose to serve. And one mother of two sons in harm's way, waiting and hoping and praying that they come home alive this time.

Sorab Wadia is an actor who was in FEAR UP last summer. We had a lot of conversations about the level of humor that was appropriate for serious statements about war and torture. We agreed that finding a balance between "I Love Lucy" and Lenny Bruce is not easy and the context of the times needs consideration.

Watch the above video. Sorab is in a new production called JIHAD THE MUSICAL. He plays a wannabe terrorist.

Here is the description of Jihad The Musical:

The Show

Featuring songs such as 'I wanna be like Osama' and the love ballad 'I Only See Your Eyes', JIHAD THE MUSICAL is a madcap gallop through the wacky world of international terrorism; one that puts the powers that be in their place, and that invokes the Blitz spirit that we must laugh at those who seek to intimidate us. Stand back! This is a high-kicking chorus line!

Hmmm. Much food for thought here. Is the darkness of the humor in some way a barometer for the depth of the problems? Are these actors simply oblivious to the degree of offensiveness in their work? IS it offensive? Are you amused? Are you more aware?

Can we make jokes about invading Saudi Arabia, or are we deep-down seriously pushing back at fear? Can Sorab, who is truly both Muslim and American, and politically aware, be allowed to make fun of his culture of origin? UPDATE: Sorab wrote to me and reminded me that he is actually NEITHER Mulsim nor American, but Zoroastrian by religion and Indian by citizenship. He is, however, applying for American citizenship, which led to my query: WHY?? I am sure he has good reasons. I am just feeling a tad negative about the direction this country is going in and concerned about adding more taxpayers to support the cabal...

[Photo credit of eggs frying on sidewalk: operapixels]

All the kids I know are asking if you can really do this...yes, you can, but it's disgusting. I give that answer alot these days.

[UPDATE: Harriet Miers blows off the subpoena. Conyers responds here. My response? Throw her ass in jail. Now. What's your response?]

Speaking of these days, you don't need me to tell you that it's summertime. The mercury is through the roof, and we're all seeking a little shelter. And while you seek that shelter, what are you talking about with your friends and neighbors? More important, what are you talking about with strangers? You know, the folks in line at the grocery store, or in my case, at the town pool.

I usually know what's on the minds of my close friends and neighbors, but I've found that what's on the minds of strangers usually provides the most insight as to what the country, as a whole, is talking about.

So here's what people are talking back about:

Ally and I get kind of esoteric in our blog discussions about exotic animals like Neoconservatives and Neoliberals. Then there are all the different stripes and colors of regular old Democrats and Republicans, as they evolve across time (assuming evolution exists). Then there is the third issue of whether "swing voters" are worth dealing with or should they just be ignored and they might go away.

We have the "fifty state plan" people vs those who would target "swing states" which presumably can go either way.

Who are these "swing voters" or Independents and why are they important?

In 2004, Bush and Kerry split the independent vote, but in 2006 independents swung toward Democratic House candidates by a wide margin. They are poised to play a decisive role in 2008.

The percentage identifying as Independent has risen from approximately 25% in the 1950s to almost 40% in 2004. Independents are less likely to vote than Democrats or Republicans. The number voting jumped from 19% of voters in 1972 to approximately 27% in the 2006 midterm election, and peaked in 1976 at 34%. Other surveys have identified 29% to 34% of voters as Independents.

While karen's down in Mobile dancing for peace where the ragman draws circles up and down the block, Americans everywhere are shouting out their windows that they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. William Rivers Pitt recently summed up both the dammed-up hope and the the pent-up rage that Americans are feeling so brilliantly in this Truthout essay that we felt it worth reposting at length as today's thread header here. Pitt's use of his friend Dan's small but serious gesture as a metaphor for what needs to be done and his description of the single thing that still unites our intensely fragmented American society are examples of political writing at its best, as is his echoing of a powerful quote by another one of America's great activists, Frederick Douglass:

"When men sow the wind it is rational to expect that they will reap the whirlwind."

A Time to Reap
by William Rivers Pitt

My friend Dan was on his way home the other day, and found an American flag crumpled in a gutter outside his apartment building. The flag, perhaps as big as the cover of a book, had been used as a decoration for some pre-Fourth of July party, but afterwards was merely thrown aside like litter for the street-sweepers to collect.

Dan gathered it up, smoothed the creases, and hung it from a nearby railing. The motivation for his actions was hard for him to explain, but it came down to this: Everything else in America is so screwed up, but this American thing before him would not be defiled within reach of his arm. My friend, surrounded by the chaos of a flailing nation and filled with the need to act, found some solace in the rescue of that flag.

He is not alone in his sentiments, not alone in his desire to make things right again within reach of his arm.

There is something happening today in America. With the right kind of ears, you can hear it in the sound of millions of brows slowly furrowing in anger and disgust. It feels like those tense moments just before the eruption of a summer thunderstorm, those moments when the air is electric, the ozone reek of spent lightning fills the world, and you know something very loud is about to happen.

[Ed's note: some comments, such as this one from the previous thread, just plain deserve to get promoted to blog threaders as well. And this is a Good Thing.]


Do you know that I am up 1-1/2 hour early because I could not sleep? In a way it was the cats, the crows, the Canadian geese, the cop cars and the cold, in exactly that order. It was also the thoughts running endlessly through my brain:

What if Gore had held out longer?
What if we had signed Kyoto?
What if we had anticipated and stopped 9/11? (Having just read a long article about George Tenet of the CIA last night in the New Yorker, I believe we could and should have been able to do this)
What if we hadn't gone into Iraq? Would the domes of the mosques still be standing? Would we have a trillion dollars to spend on alternative energies? Would we have really needed Homeland Security?
What if we had never gotten involved in the internal politics of Iran and Iraq back in the day?
What if we had never armed Iran or Iraq, either one?
What if we had left well enough alone?
What if we had bolstered the levies of New Orleans?
What if we had gone ahead with tsunami detection including in the Indonesia region - helped more with this?
What if we had helped more with actual impending humanitarian disasters like East Timor, Rwanda, Darfur?
What if we had put more into eradicating AIDS rather than promoting abstinence?
What if we promoted abstract reasoning in our young people?
What if we concentrated on meth labs instead of medical marijuana?
What if we joined the rest of the developed world and made it so that people here could have health care?
What if we tried to decrease our prison population?
What if people who worry about when life starts worried as much about preventing things like that creepo in England who was molesting children live on the internet, to requests or pregnant women from getting blown up in war?

I had to get up because I was making myself crazy and obviously couldn't sleep. The crows are making the exact pissed off sound that I would make if my vocal tract would allow it.

Posted by: not my president at June 20, 2007 08:13 AM

Last week karen presented us with a video she'd made in memory of liberal media activist Maria Leavey, in which she cited a number of other women who had the courage to speak out against war and injustice. As she noted in her intro to that video,

...in reading about Maria, I recognized aspects of so many of the women (and some men) who work day after day to make a difference, including the lack of resources and reduced circumstances under which they toil. So I made a video. It's called 'What Would Maria Do?' I made it because I want you to know about the women who create, write, speak, march, and who make a difference, no matter how small, and who inspire me to keep on keeping on.

I was reminded of that video when I read a recent dKos diary profiling another woman activist who's displaying uncommon courage, strength, and tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds. Her name is Doris Tennant, but she and her equally courageous partner Ellen Lubell are not marching in the street for the sake of justice -- they're carrying it with them right through the cold gray gates of Guantanamo Bay.

Here's what dKos diarist geomoo had to say about the two women's efforts to defend Gitmo detainees against their illegal detention:

My ex-wife, Doris Tennant-Moore, just returned from her second visit to Guantanamo, where she is representing Abdul Aziz Naji. To all appearances, he is one of the unluckiest of the unlucky, in contrast to his characterization by our government. It seems he was arbitrarily captured on the basis either of association with the wrong people or of being turned in for bounty. He claims never to have committed any kind of violence against any US citizen. I am writing this diary to inform, but also in hopes of attracting some emotional and financial support for Doris’ principled commitment to do all she can to represent one detainee and to fight our country's illegal and immoral conduct at Guantanamo.

...because what the hell comment could one possibly add to this, anyway?

http://icasualties.org/oif/

There's been an epidemic of mental failure in Congressional hearings lately. But unless you're addicted to watching C-SPAN (and you know who you are), you may have missed seeing the initial symptoms of the outbreak.

But with the internet and easy-to-use video editing tools available, user-generated content has stepped up to fill the gap between long & boring and short & entertaining.

Those suffering from the affliction have appeared in a number of Congressional hearings and can be identified by their heavy repetition of the phrases, "I don't remember" and "I don't recall".

Of the more recent outbreak, Kyle Sampson was the first notable case.

Then Kyle's boss caught it.

Today's threader was guest-written by our Australian friend Wendy Lohse, aka woz.

Frequently, I'm reminded of the huge range of people I come across on the DCP blog. I love the mix. I love the snippets from home that slide into posts every now and then. I love the range of personalities. And I love the examples of your energetic activism.

Events like the demonstrations that DiAnne reports on for the DCP provide creative inspiration to us here as well as to yourselves. Karen's continued perseverance and the actions of the Code Pink women also show that even small actions can provide the spark that will grow into a flame. Code Pink didn't begin big -- it has grown big. Code Pink is now a force to be reckoned with.

But while reading the blog this morning, I was jolted into reality when I came across this line from Indie Liberal:

"I bet Rove is just laughing his tail off at the way we continue to eat our own."

I say "jolted", because that's how it hit me. Smack! Right in the gut! We are heading for a continued catastrophe unless we are able to harness the criticisms of our own and turn them into positive, published, public awareness. While we "eat our own" we allow fear to escalate and translate into war. As yet we have no idea what the consequences will be.

We know the consequences of the Vietnam war. The consequences live in broken bodies and minds amongst us. They live in the deformed and damaged bodies and brains of Vietnam's population. What do we call American defoliants that rained down on our own soldiers and allies in Vietnam? Friendly fire? Defoliants that cause sickness and deformity through who knows how many generations? Friendly? Fire?

From across the world we look to America to never again let the United States' mainstream media take away from us the things we most value. Peace. Truth. Justice. Freedom.

Through this media the lies, trickery and criminal activity run rampant, unencumbered by facts. Fear sells. War sells. Peace is placid. It's time to engage Americans in a media investigation. I know that I see some horrifying things that are done in your name, but without your knowledge. I remember watching a documentary about 20 years ago, made by American journalists, about one of the South American nightmares. This documentary was banned in the US at the time. I have no link because I don't remember the country or the concerns raised. I remember it BECAUSE it was banned in the US.

I understand the problem of your mainstream media being used to manipulate people's thoughts and beliefs. It's the same here. I forget that because I never watch or read it. A friend asked me, "How do you know all that?" And then I realized why people vote, the way they vote. It's because of the information that seeps silently into their psyche. What can we do to protect ourselves against that?

People will never know how they really feel until we start using the mainstream media in the way the tricksters use it. Meet propaganda and lies head on. It takes money and that's the most unfortunate thing. But some people are getting the message out. Michael Moore has done a lot. Al Gore has done a lot. John and Teresa Kerry have tentacles reaching out into all kinds of multi-faceted spheres. And information is getting through. But we still need more. We need it everywhere. Otherwise the politicians who use fear as a weapon and lies as excuses will still have the upper hand.

First of all, watching this video *will* upset you. You have to log in and state that you are over 18 to see it, but even then, be prepared for some strong reactions:

Then read the comments posted below the video on the YouTube site, because the comments and the contents of that video pretty much define the range of what we, as responsible citizens, have to understand and reconcile.

The man on the video, Iraqi Member of Parliament Mohammed al-Dynee, shared his insights on the current situation with several DC-based activists and the women of Code Pink Monday evening last, at a dinner at the Code Pink house on Capitol Hill. Now, to disclaim, I have no idea if Mr. al-Dynee is a secret partisan or has a particular agenda at all. But he is a terribly serious man, and is someone who is thoughtful and generous, a humanist, if you will. At least that's the man I met at dinner.

The reason this blog thread header was held until now is that CBS News apparently had an exclusive hold on the story until Thursday. A quick Google search reveals nothing online as of Saturday morning. So either CBS decided the story did not hold water, or there is some obfuscation going on.

To those who ask: I found him credible and calm, but I have no way of evaluating his perspective. I am inclined to believe that his sense of what is happening in Iraq is more valid than, say, press releases from the White House. But I am learning, as all of us are, that there is still much that we do not know.

That is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

Impeachment is a serious thing.

It's not a thing to be taken lightly. It's not a thing to be undertaken without a lot of forethought, a preponderance of evidence, and a steadfast determination to see it through to its logical conclusion.

We have discussed impeachment in this space before. It's come up often, and it continues to come up often, in the course of comments posted on this blogsite. While the DCP as an entity does not advocate impeachment -- nor should it, given its status as a non-partisan not-for-profit organization dedicated to education and empowerment of citizen activists -- many members of the DCP community can, and frequently have, called for impeachment on their own.

Even when the words in question have had 40 years' worth of sacred, timeless truth seeping into each and every one of them.

You know, it's not every day that a guy gets to start off a blog entry by saying, "Well, so I just got off the phone with John and Teresa Kerry, and this is what they said to tell you..."

But I did in fact just get off the phone with John and Teresa Kerry, and this is what they said to tell you (paraphrased into my own words, of course, I can only scribble notes with a phone held to my ear so fast...)

(Our friend Lori Perdue was arrested on Friday for disrupting Congress. She wrote this explanation/description/analysis of the day and we publish it here in order to have a dialogue about such actions.)

I am, in general, a law-abiding citizen. I pay my taxes. I use my turn signals. I show respect for law enforcement officers, too much sometimes, according to Medea (Benjamin). I am a realistic person and an idealistic soul. The combination makes for an interesting perspective while working on the Hill.

I have been in many, many congressional hearings in the past several months. And yes, I have acted up, spoken up, been moved to stand up in protest, been removed and threatened with arrest.

Lori, after the Code Pink Slip action at the Mayflower Hotel last month

I have confronted legislators in hallways, following press conferences, in their offices, at events and on the streets of D.C. I have lobbied, monitored, and marched into the teeth of opposition. It is true, I have pushed the envelope and been pushed across the line and onto the floors of the House office buildings. That must be expected when one is working with likes of revolutionaries Medea Benjamin and Gael Murphy. I have not, however, been arrested… before Friday, March 23.

Civil disobedience has been something I have supported, and advocated. It is a valuable tool for change in our society, a vital part of Democracy. But I have made a point in many conversations to stress that it would take a very clear issue to motivate me to join the ranks of the activists who so willingly lay their bodies, records and pocketbooks on the line to emphasize a point to their government. Last week, I proudly, but with an overwhelming sadness, added my name to the list of those whose life stories include defying rules and laws to shed light on injustice and express dissent.

Lori, before going into the House chambers, photo: Tyler Westbrook

I spent early Friday morning on the sidewalk between the House office buildings and the Capitol lobbying Members going to and from the Democratic Caucus meeting, stressing that if they buy this war, by funding it, they will own it and will be held responsible for the outcome. I won’t say the effort was wasted, because the experience hardened my resolve. When Members who greeted me on their way to the Caucus meeting wouldn’t look me in the eye upon their return, I understood that our battle for de-funding was facing defeat at the hands of the Democratic leadership. The reality of the betrayal was stark, but not startling.

Move On had ensured that the staunch attitude of “No more money for War” from the Peace Movement contingent was muddled with an invalid poll and millions of dollars applied to pushing Dems to vote for the Supplemental and its millions for programs unrelated to ending the war. The tears started to flow freely when a Democrat finally looked at me, standing on the sidewalk with a poster of an American soldier carrying a dead Iraqi child, and said, “There’s nothing we can do about it. They are going to get their votes. Thank you for trying. Don’t stop.”

After working so hard, for so many weeks, with so many people, to pressure Congressional Democrats to vote “NO” on the Iraq War Supplemental, or for Democrats of principal to support the Lee Amendment that would fund only the safe and orderly withdrawal of troops, I felt I had no choice but to ensure that a voice of dissent was heard in the House.

I entered the Capitol building with Marine Mom Tina Richards, Military Families Speak Out co-founder Nancy Lessin, and two other members of MFSO. I was wearing black, clearly marked with Code Pink – Women for Peace, with stage blood on my hands and face. We waited in line, passed through security, waited inside the Capitol and were finally admitted to the House Gallery. Tina and I were seated in the front row, along the rail, directly behind the Democrats. As Speaker Pelosi addressed Congress Tina produced a photo of her Son, Cloy, bravely held it in front of her face and refused to put it away. She wanted to remind Congress, many of whom had met with her in the previous weeks, that her son could be recalled to active duty and deployed to Iraq, for the third time, if they funded the Supplemental. She was escorted out of the gallery by four plain clothes Capitol Police officers and removed from the building. They did not want to arrest her, told her so, and showed regret at her plight and were kind to her as they ejected her.

As the Speaker wrapped up her address by twisting the Peace Movement’s talking points to her purpose, making it seem as if the interests of American and International Peace Groups were truly being served by the passing of this bill, I felt physically ill. Pelosi was co-opting our truth and besmirching it with her partisan spin. The feeling of betrayal was overwhelming and my heart started to pound with an outrage that rivaled that of the dismay and anger I felt over “Shock and Awe”.

Congress quickly moved for a voice vote on the bill. When the applause faded and legislators moved to cast their electronic votes for the record I recognized that my time had arrived. I quickly stood, held my bloody hands in the air and shouted, “Don’t buy this war.” I was grabbed by the Capitol Officer who had stationed himself next to me, expecting just this type of disturbance, and pulled into the aisle. I continued, “You’re buying it and you own it!” Four more officers surrounded me and lifted me by my elbows up the stairs as I shouted, “Troops Home Now! Troops Home Now! Troops Home Now!” as they carried me from the Gallery. Another Activist, Tighe Barry, picked up the cry from another area in the Gallery as they dragged me out, sustaining the dissent for a few more moments. We were both arrested, searched, cuffed and taken away by police quite efficiently and without violence.

Looking back, I realize that our actions did not change the way the votes fell, but the spirit of true change was recognized in the Capitol. Pelosi and the Blue Dogs got what they wanted legislatively. They got their money, but they also got the message that the cost was much greater than 100 billion dollars. The true cost will be paid in blood and tears. They did not, however, get it quietly, floating their political maneuvering under the radar. Tighe and I made sure they and everyone in the Gallery and maybe those watching at home on C-Span realized that there are those in the public who disagree, that there are Americans that don’t believe that more money for war is supporting the troops. I truly hope that all members of Congress understand that we will continue to mourn and dissent even in the House Chambers, and now in the Senate, until they act responsibly to Bring our Troops Home Now.

Lori Perdue is a native of Indiana, mother of two teenagers, a United States Air Force Veteran and is officially affiliated with Code Pink – Women for Peace, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. She has been a full-time Peace Activist for two years.

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
- Thomas Paine

From Eric Zorn's weblog on the Chicago Tribune website comes this poignant reminder of the human cost of the neocons' illegal and immoral war for oil in the Middle East:

Soldier's dad tells Bush, 'This war is wrong'

The two-page letter is signed from the “proud father of a fallen soldier.”

A little more than six weeks ago, his soul a cauldron of grief and rage, Richard Landeck, 56, of Wheaton addressed and mailed it to President Bush.

And since he’s yet to receive an acknowledgment or reply, he asked me if I’d help get his message out.

“My voice, and that of many other frustrated Americans is not being heard,” he said.

It’s the least I can do, I replied.

“My son was killed in Iraq on February 2, 2007,” says the letter. “His name is Captain Kevin Landeck….

“He was killed while riding in a Humvee by a roadside bomb just south of Baghdad. He has a loving mother, a loving father and loving sister. You took him away from us.”

The letter adds that Kevin Landeck, 26, a Wheaton Warrenville South High School and Purdue University graduate, had been married for 17 months and was very proud to be serving his country.

But “the message he continued to send to me was that of incompetence,” Landeck’s letter says. “Incompetence by you, (Vice President Richard) Cheney and (former defense secretary Donald) Rumsfeld. Incompetence by some of his commanders as well as the overall strategy of your decisions.

“When I asked him about what he thought about your decision to `surge’ more troops to Baghdad, he told me, `until the Iraqis pick up the ball we are going to get cut to shreds. It doesn’t matter how many troops Bush sends, nothing has been addressed to solve the problem he started,’” says Landeck’s letter.

This is a reasonably close paraphrase of an e-mail Kevin Landeck sent to his parents on Jan. 19, a short note signed “live from the (excrement) show” that referred to the war strategy as “senseless.”

[...]

Richard Landeck and his wife Vicki have never been active in politics, they told me as I sat with them around their kitchen table Sunday night in the Stonehedge subdivision in the heart of DuPage County. He’s a sales rep. She’s a dental hygienist. Their other child, Jennifer, 23, is an actress who also works part-time at the nearby golf course.

As the war in Iraq enters its 5th year, look for families like the Landecks to become the face of the anti-war movement: Archtypal middle Americans who can no longer respond with platitudinous faith in our leaders to the persistent waste –-- a word Richard Landeck does not shy from –- of the lives of our young men and women in Iraq.

Saturday, they went to nearby Bloomingdale to join in a peace rally, their first.

What Eric Zorn did with his Chicago Tribune column, we can all do with this and the other blogs we participate in. Let's make sure the word gets out about Richard Landeck's letter to President Bush -- because, sadly, there are a lot more grieving families like the Landecks out there, and more are being added every day we let the White House keep on making brave men and women die for a lie in Iraq.

The full text of Mr. Landeck's letter follows; a memorial guestbook for his fallen son Captain Kevin Landeck has also been set up on the Chicago Tribune's site here if you would like to add your voice to those sharing in his family's loss.

From the online Iranian news and culture reporting website Persian Journal:

Iranian defector may hold catalyst for war
Mar 11, 2007

An Iranian defense official who reportedly defected to the West last week may be in possession of evidence that could be used justify military action against Iran.

Former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Rez Asgari was secreted away from Turkey to an undisclosed location in Europe by Western officials.

This after he informed American officials several weeks earlier that he wished to defect and provide assistance in bringing down those running his country.

According to a London-based Arabic newspaper, Asgari was in possession of documents definitively linking the Iranian regime to the actions of Lebanon's Hizb'allah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the two main insurgency forces in Iraq -- the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps.

Asgari was also well acquainted with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as Tehran's preparations for possible military conflict with the US.

If the evidence -- particularly regarding Iran's role in Iraq's instability -- is verifiable, it could be enough to prompt Washington to begin putting war preparations in motion.

The room filled early last night at Politics and Prose. I had to fight off several elderly people to keep the seat open for Richard, who had decided to drive to meet me via West Virginia. He missed most of the talk.

Joe began by talking about the "carefully calibrated campaign" that the neo-cons have been working on for thirty years. He told us that his publisher and he had been discussing the Bush administration, and the publisher told him to take a new look at Sinclair Lewis' quickly executed book, It Can't Happen Here.

Joe did, and found it "eerie". Lewis wrote the book in four months, while he was drinking heavily, and at the behest of his wife, the journalist Dorothy Thompson, who had just been kicked out of Nazi Germany for championing the defense of a young Jew accused of assassinating a diplomat. The book sold over 200,000 copies and was turned into a play under the auspices of the WPA. Lewis even played the role of the Editor-Hero, Doremus Jessup, a few times. The book was almost made into a movie, but Italy and Germany threatened to ban all US-made films if it was made. Surprisingly, (hahaha) Hollywood folded.

Why did the book resonate with people at the time? Joe said people were concerned about fascism. Lewis also wanted to influence the 1936 elections; he was concerned that Huey Long was the type of character who would diminish democracy in the service of the powerful. Long was assassinated before the election, but readers got the comparison anyway.

In his book, Conason draws the comparisons between recent history and the events in the Lewis book, but it's not a literary treatise. Joe stands in a long tradition of muckrakers.

We Americans need to address some history that should probably have been more prevalent in news media coverage and analysis in 2002 and 2003 -- as discussed in a book by Vali Nasr, titled "The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future".

In the preface to his book, Mr. Nasr recounts an incident that he observed, which I recall as well, observed through the global eye of television. I interpreted it much differently than he did. Unfortunately for our soldiers, our government did not understand the significance of such an event either.

I was on a research trip in Pakistan in April 2003 when two million Shias gathered in the Iraqi city of Karbala to mark the Arbaeen, the commemoration of the fortieth day after the martyrdom of the Shia saint Imam Husayn [Hussein] at Karbala in 680 C.E. ... On that particular "fortieth day," so soon after the one on which U.S. Marines and jubilant Iraqis had pulled down Saddam's hollow image in Baghdad's Firdous Square, I happened to be on the outskirts of Lahore, visiting the headquarters of a Sunni fundamentalist political group known as the Jamaat-e Islami (Islamic Party). The office television set was tuned to CNN, as everyone was following the news from Iraq. The coverage turned to scenes of young Shia men standing densely packed in the shadow of the golden dome of Imam Husayn's shrine at Karbala. They all wore black shirts and had scarves of green (the universal color of Islam) wrapped around their heads. They chanted a threnody in Arabic for their beloved saint as they raised their empty hands as if in prayer toward heaven and in unison brought them down to thump on their chests in a rhythmic gesture of mourning, solidarity, and mortification. The image was magnetic, at once jubilant and defiant. The Shia were in the streets and they were holding their faith and their identity high for all to see. We stared at the television screen. My Sunni hosts were aghast at what they were seeing. A pall descended on the room.

...The CNN commentator was gleefully boasting that the Iraqis were free at last--they were performing a ritual that the audience in the West did not understand but that had been forbidden to the Shia for decades. What Americans saw as Iraqi freedom, my hosts saw as blatant display of heretical rites that are anathema to orthodox Sunnis. ... "These actions are not right," said one of my hosts. Iraqis--by which he meant the Shia -- "do not know the proper practice of Islam." The Shia-Sunni debates over the truth of the Islamic message and how to practice it would continue, he added, not just peacefully and symbolically but with bombs and bullets. He was talking not about Iraq but about Pakistan.

So what are these differences between Shia and Sunni and how have they evolved? That's not something that I can adequately cover here but I can point you toward a few resources that will start you on a journey of understanding that we all should have taken 5 years ago.

Liam Madden is a 22 year old who grew up in Vermont. He joined the Marines six months after high school. He is sweet-looking, polite, just the kind of young man any country would be proud of.

Liam in front

His most recent project is to appeal Congress for redress; for a withdrawal of the troops and an end to the war. The statement, now signed by over 1200 military, reads as follows:

As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

Liam is on a national tour to speak to students about the war and his efforts to end it.

We spoke with Liam about patriotism and bravery. What does it mean to speak out against the war? He is still learning, but it is something worth taking seriously and to heart, and his heart is right there, for all to see and feel.

Garrett Reppenhagen is a member of Iraq Vets Against the War and Veterans for America (formerly Vietnam Veterans Against the War). He is working on several fronts, but one of the most important is the work he is doing to find a retreat and treatment center for homeless vets. He is seeking federal and state funds to build the center. Sitting around the table and talking with Lori, Tina Richards, Liam, and Richard and me, Garrett pointed out, "The soldier is only the bullet. It's the American people wh