To All You Mothers Out There

(And you know who you are....)

Happy Mother's Day. But don't forget to check out the historical piece mentioned/linked in this post.

Franks: Kill 'Em

From another New York Daily News column (Rush and Malloy):

Gen. Tommy Franks is hoping for the best, but planning for the worst in Iraq.
Franks, who retired last year after heading up Operation Iraqi Freedom, is all for bringing in Iraqi troops to root out insurgents in Fallujah.

But what if those Iraqi troops side with the insurgents?

"If they aren't true to our cause, we'll kill 'em," Franks told us at a Vanity Fair party the other night.

No Beating Around the Bush

From Lloyd Grove's column in the NY Daily News:

Nobody needs to tell Kurt Vonnegut to stop beating around the Bush.
"They're adroit criminals," the 81-year-old literary lion labeled President Bush and his underlings while riding in a taxi with Lowdown's Hudson Morgan to Wednesday night's 27th anniversary party for In These Times, the paleoliberal magazine.

"They're committing war crimes - attacking a country that hasn't attacked us. Pretending it had. And torturing prisoners and filling countless graves with dead Iraqis. But adroit, sure. Al Capone was adroit."

The pop-culture icon added dismissively: "I don't care how Bush does, because I don't believe him. He believes himself, and that's what is quite terrifying."

As for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, they're the ones "who allowed this torture to go on, kept it secret since January. These are war crimes," Vonnegut said. "I dealt with prisoners when I was a soldier. We sure didn't torture them - we were well aware of the Geneva Convention. I myself became a prisoner" of the Germans as an Army corporal in Dresden during World War II.

"It's my country, not theirs," he continued lashing the Bushies. "And they've trashed the reputation of Americans. ... It's possible to destroy a great civilization. Bush and those people have no love for it at all."

Vonnegut - the author of "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "Breakfast of Champions" - has been penning polemics for In These Times and is hoping to produce another novel.

"I've taken an advance. But now is not the time for a novel, is what Samuel Goldwyn would have said. If you have a message, send a telegram. And it's time to send telegrams right now."

What he'd really like to do is be an analyst on CNN. "What I want is - they've got all these generals and stuff and military retired consultants to CNN and so forth, I want 'em to have a retired corporal - me!"

He sure won't mince words.

VA Hospital Reorganization

I find it a tad scary that this administration is "committed" to restructuring the Veterans Administration hospital system. Granted, the system direly needs help, but the Bush Administration has cut GI and vet benefits right and left while waving the flag wildly.

Our vets deserve better than they get. There were promises made that are not being fulfilled.

Army Saves No

Men who jumped into Normandy 60 years ago have had the Army say no to their efforts to make a commemmorative 60th year jump again. The Army says they're too old. Interestingly enough, France does not appear to have been consulted... at least, not referenced in this article.

Hey, if they want to jump and France allows it, let 'em jump. They know the risks. Some of them did it 10 years ago for a 50th anniversary (when some of them purportedly landed on cows). What business is it of the Army's?

Of course, Rumsfeld is looking for more warm bodies to send to Iraq. He's just as apt to refuse this request then turn around and draft them.

The Irony

John Gotti's son, who appeared to be very happy to profit from his "Teflon Don" Dad's income and business connections and last name in the past, is now alleging the federal government is discriminating against him because of his last name by not allowing him to move to a halfway house from prison.

How dare the government keep him in jail for all 6 years and 5 months of his sentence on racketeering? Da nohve a dese people.

Strange Case of Morning-After Pill Rejection

From The Times. The argument offered is that young girls may be more likely to have sex with such a pill available. But - just as the article indicates - we don't stop release of anti-cholesterol drugs on the theory that people may use it as an excuse to eat more cheeseburgers.

Once again, this administration is running roughshod over the bodies of women.

Judge: No More Children

A Rochester couple has been ordered by the court not to have any more children.

If only someone had ordered that for George H.W. and Barbara Bush, we would have been spared Jeb, Neil, and George W., saving hundreds if not thousands of lives, saving the taxpayers billions of dollars, and saving something of our respect throughout the entire world.

Ted Rall

I've avoided this topic because it's been an uncomfortable one, but here goes.

Last week (I believe... you can probably locate the cartoon in his archives at http://www.ucomics.com/rallcom/), Ted Rall published a cartoon about Pat Tillman, the former pro ball player who died recently in the war.

While Ted and I share some similar views on various important points - at least so far as I can tell from his cartoons, columns, and speaking engagements - I found the Tillman cartoon extremely disquieting and felt I could understand why some were outraged. It depicted Tillman less as a hero (and man, that term gets used and abused so much today) than as a pawn in a miserable war where we're fighting civilians with 500-lb bombs and worse.

However, there's some truth in that cartoon. I might not personally feel right in mocking what Tillman felt he could accomplish, but we are conducting a war that is grossly unfair (just in terms of money and fire power, let alone dozens of other points of inequity) and Bush and his cronies have inflated this whole war phenomenon to inspire people like Tillman to join up.

The truth, as they say, sometimes hurts.

About Mother's Day

As we all flock to buy the candy, the flowers, the nice cards, spend a few minutes educating yourself about how Mother's Day began with this piece by Geoff Parrish. Thank you, Julia Howe.

Tomorrow, there will be mothers torn apart either grieving their dead soldiers or worried sick about the ones still in harm's way. Some of them will be American, some British, some Italian, some Russian, some Afghan, some Iraqi.

Oliver Willis Brings a Smile

Oliver Willis has a really cute piece up today about a right-wing singles' dating site:

SWF, early-40s, are you into rail thin blondes with no conscience? Must enjoy hypocrisy, factual distortions and possess the ability to spew venom on demand. If you don't drink the kool-aid, don't respond.

SWM, late-40s. I'm a barrel chested commentator who's into domination. Prefer milquetoast liberals without the ability to defend themselves. If you start your sentences with "you've got a point, Sean" then I think that's hot.

SBM, 30s. So alone. So, so alone. I'm in a lot of Bush/Cheney pictures however.

SWM, mid-50s. I'm into inaccurate political predictions, fact-free punditry and toe sucking. My idea of the perfect date is bashing Hillary Clinton until the sun comes up. She wants to be president, you know!

SWM, late-50s. Me: a pill popping gas bag in love with my own voice. You: a narrow minded sheep with a total inability to think for yourself. I'll bring Excellence In Broadcasting, you'll bring an empty mind.

Happy uh.... Anniversary

On this day in 1792, the U.S. passed its first military draft.

And on or about this date in 1968, George W. Bush did everthing possible he could to avoid it. And his little pal, Dick, too. And Tom Delay. And a shitload of these ultra-righteous people always telling us what's good for America (which always translates into what's good for their own pockets and/or re-elections).

Casualties?

People like Kate O'Beirne and Tom DeLay and other mental miscreants have insisted that telling these tales of prisoner abuse will only kill more of our soldiers.

On some points of this, that could be true. But suddenly, we're hearing less of "10 killed here", "6 there", and so on. It's certainly not that US GI deaths have stopped. There have been fatalities in the past 10 days (on all sides). But the facts don't stand behind what the nimbots are saying.

I'm surprised by this. Sure, the US could just be hiding the figures, since there are relatively few journalists in Iraq who are not embedded and heavily vetted through the US military as to what they report. But it would be in the Bush Administration's only screwy self-interest to claim that the reports have driven up attacks on GIs (as a means to get the criticism to die down), while that appears not to be the case.

Not the Work of Renegade GIs

Josh Marshall points us to an article to appear in the U.K. Guardian stating flatly that what we're seeing with the Iraqi detainee abuse has been specifically taught to military intelligence and special forces units. This increases the likelihood that these soldiers weren't just dreaming up abuse on their own and meting it out.

On the same page, Josh reminds us (and it's one I've thought about repeatedly in the last 10 days) of the prisoner abuse right here at home. In fact, we shipped a few people terminated for masterminding prisoner abuse over to Iraq to "help".

You Know it's Bad

When you spent so much of the day hearing about what worse things are yet to be revealed about Iraq that you stay up until 4 AM reading Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth" just to try to scrub the brain. I should say rereading, because my Campbell books are usually somewhere I can pick them up quickly.

For those who may not be familiar with the late Joseph Campbell, his work is just delightful, weaving adeptly through a tapestry of symbols and myths and common stories shared by wildy different cultures. And despite what ever horrible tale he might have to tell here or there, he always sounds so damned optimistic, that our power as humans is NOT derived from an ability to prevent the terrible from happening, but from enjoying the power of good and joy when it is witnessed. Those moments may seem slim and far apart, Campbell writes, but they are there to be embraced.

Dick Meyers Makes His Point

From CBS News online:

There is one proud and satisfied place where the pictures and accounts of the abuse endured by some prisoners at Abu Ghraib cause no consternation and no outrage: Rush Limbaugh's America, pop. 20 million.

Here's Rush's take, from his Website:

"I'm sorry, folks. I'm sorry. Somebody has to provide a little levity here. This is not as serious as everybody is making it out to be. My gosh, we're all wringing our hands here. We act like, 'Okay let's just die,' you know? 'Let's just give up. What can we do to make these people feel better? Let's just pull out of there, and let's just go. Let's just become a neutral country. Let's just do that.' I mean, it's ridiculous. It's outrageous what's happening here, and it's not -- and it's not because I'm out of touch; it's because I am in touch, folks, that I can understand. This is a pure, media-generated story. I'm not saying it didn't happen; I'm [not] saying the pictures aren't there, but this is being given more life than the Waco invasion got. This is being given more life than almost -- it's almost become an Oklahoma City-type thing. One more Bush sound bite, and the president continued explaining how real democracy works here."

As Jay Leno said tonight of Rush Limbaugh, "What's the matter? Is this man on drugs?" Heh.

Cooks and Truck Drivers as Iraqi Interrogators

From the UK's ">Guardian yesterday:

Many of the prisoners abused at the Abu Ghraib prison were innocent Iraqis picked up at random by US troops, and incarcerated by under-qualified intelligence officers, a former US interrogator from the notorious jail told the Guardian.
Torin Nelson, who served as a military intelligence officer at Guantánamo Bay before moving to Abu Ghraib as a private contractor last year, blamed the abuses on a failure of command in US military intelligence and an over-reliance on private firms. He alleged that those companies were so anxious to meet the demand for their services that they sent "cooks and truck drivers" to work as interrogators.

Can you fathom this? I can't.

Poll at Left

My apologies; I've gotten notes from a few of you that you've had difficulty voting in the poll I added (at left) today.

While it seems to be working well on my end, it doesn't load on another machine. I'll try to check it out over the weekend.

Lynndie England

She's the petite woman we see holding a lit cigarette in the vicinity of a prisoner's privates as well as walking a prone Iraqi detainee on a leash.

Her family came out today to beg the public not to judge her. They say those pictures were posed and don't truly represent her. I feel for the family, I do, just as I feel for other families of the people identified in this mess so far.

I suspect, however, that the families of the detainees she treated this way would also argue to see their loved ones as real humans, and not just someone the US has labeled worthy of detainment.

One of the worst parts of the England story, IMHO, is that her job is strictly administrative. She had no reason to be back there palling around with the guards and interacting thusly with the prisoners, from reports I've heard and read. So we have a woman who chose, for whatever reason, to participate well past her job description, and no good explanation why...unless you happen to be devotees of either the Milgram or Zimbardo experiments on captor-prisoner relationships.

Hearty Recommendation

For those who may not yet have read Paul Krugman's "The Great Unraveling", I'd recommend you beg/buy/borrow a copy. It's not fun reading, but it's an insightful analysis of what's been happening to the U.S. Krugman, for those who don't follow him, is an economist as well as a Times columnist.