QUICK THOUGHTS ON A THURSDAY MORNING

A few broadsides from a sinking Swift boat...

White Women and Whine

I was going to do a whole rant about the Terrell Owens/Desperate Housewives/Monday Night Football sketch "controversy", but even I'm getting sick of it and the best blog on it I've so far come across is King Kauffman's Daily Sports Column in Salon.com, so I suggest you check it out. All I'll say here is that if you think any outrage like this DOESN'T have a racial element to it, however minor, then you probably haven't been living in this country very long. Or you're Ward Connerly (California's Black anti-affirmative action activist). Personally, I didn't find it offensive--just stupid and unnecesary. Especially since DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is the number 2 show on TV even without a shamelessly sleazy skit to promote it.

Alberto Gonzalez and Condoleeza Rice: The Bad Kind of Affirmative Action

My support for affirmative action, even with it's so-called "flaws" is on record and vociferous. Except when Republicans try to practice it, because they only promote lapdogs of color, not people who actually have the qualifications and, oh by the way, belong to a minority group. This happened with Clarence Thomas (who had the gall to be anti-affirmative action of course) and it has happened again with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. As the LA Weekly reports, Gonzalez wrote several of the sloppiest legal memos in Texas history when Bush was governor, all in favor of the state's death penalty sentencing, a horror unto itself.

As for Rice, while she is undeniably smart, witty and cunning, her qualifications to run the State department, which let us not forget, is supposed to be the coordinating agency of national DIPLOMACY, are questionable and best and downright laughable at worst. It wouldn't shock me at all if the U.S. just up and pulled out of the United Nations altogether by 2008 as long as Rice is in charge. Then again, if we go to war with Iran in the next four years, we may not be alive to be outraged. Small blessings.

True Wisdom

This came in the email from a Friend of out Blog. It gave me a feeling of peace and calm, rare for things that come into my inbox. I hope it helps you all. Until next time, Peace:

"An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, 'A fight is going on inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too.'

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied..."The one I feed."

MISCELLANY

My Message to Congress As Part of Moveon.org Petition to Investigate Vote Tampering

"It's supposed to be a democracy in the United States and if vote tampering is intentional and systemic, then those who are behind it are traitors who are trashing what should be our nation's most sacred value. Please do your job and investigate so that our democracy can be protected from tyranny."

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Quote Sent By A Friend in these Troubled Times

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over,
their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight,
restore their government to its true principles.
"It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and
incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt.
"If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till
luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the
principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter of 1798, after the passage of the Sedition
Act.

Thanks for reading in England, S! :-)

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Shameless Plug Section

Check out the wit and wisdom of yours truly at the irregularly updated "R Spot" (http://rdonkey04.blogspot.com/). I need your musical suggestions...

Jamie Foxx. Best Actor Oscar. Enough said. I will be at the Kodak Theater after the Oscars with my trashcan ready to crash through the window if it doesn't happen.

But for now, Peace.

NOVEMBER 3RD & BEYOND

Post Mortem, Black Days

I can't say I'm shocked but I sure am disappointed...it's good to know that America has it's priorities straight: a quagmire in Iraq; a debauched, outsourced economy, these are mere annoyances in the face of the horror that is gay marriage, legalized abortion or stem cell research. OK, as a loyal, liberal Democrat I've learned my lesson. To paraphrase Bill Clinton (ah, Bill), "It's 9/11 and family values stupid!"

I can't even hurl my usual brickbats at the Democratic Party. Once they hit their stride in September 2004, they did almost everything right in their campaign. Kerry stayed on message. We didn't get drastically outspent. Kerry won the debates (but then again, a drunken monkey in a suit might have beaten Bush...if Bush wasn't already a drunken monkey in a suit. Am I digressing? Damn, I hate when I do that! How do I get out of my parenthetical digressions? It's like being a mole in a maze made out of glass. What the hell does THAT mean? Someone help...)

There's a huge culture divide in America, or so the Big Media would have you believe. In actuality, most Americans agree on a vast array of issues ranging from the sanctity of Social Security to the need for better (but not necessarily universal) health care. Karl Rove, the sickest and evilest political genius to show up since Henry Kissenger went into private practice, secured victory for the Red State Brigade by using wedge issues like the gay marriage initiative to inspire the most conservative voters to vote in large numbers. Even many Democrats, brainwashed as we all are by the notion that there is something sacred and religious about marriage, aren't comfortable with the notion of extending full benefits to gay partners and making it "legal" in the traditional heterosexual sense of the word. It was evil and narrowminded, but it was genius. It ensured that the Democrats and Kerry were the "them" that was eroding our precious tradition American values.

Yes, there were voting irregularities. There are always voting irregularities. There may even be enough irregularities here to merit a serious investigation and, yes, every vote should be counted because, gosh, this is a democracy dammit and we need to stop pretending that counting every vote is some kind of nuisance. The minute we stop counting is the minute we wake up in a Fascist, tinhorn dictatorship (we're on that path folks, but we're not there yet).

Where do progressives go from here? I was thinking about Iceland myself, but really, what is the future of the Left in a country that thinks John Freakin' Kerry is too liberal? (By the way, Bjork, why won't you answer my emails? Oh damn, another digression. And my g.f. is going to be pissed!)

All is not lost. We have to fight for all the progressive causes we always have and be even more vigorous. We can't let the Democrats in the Senate roll over like puppy dogs when the President tries to shove anti-choice judicial nominees down their throats--the GOP may have 55 seats, but they don't have enough to block a filibuster. It will be a long four years, we'll almost certainly pass the 5,000 mark in U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan and you can quintuple that if the neocons have their way and aim our troops and missiles at Teheran. But we can weather this and get behind Kerry or Edwards or Dean or Hillary or whoever in 2008 and still save our country from the kind of narrow, fundamentalist governing that has imperiled the Middle East and Africa for decades. Most importantly, whoever emerges for the Democrats over the next four years has to articulate, without condescension or hesitation, why we are all Americans, what our common interests are and how we go about them. It needs to be about the Red, White and Blue, not just the Red and Blue states. We deserve better and we are better. Even the rest of the world realizes that, although they must be shaking their heads after November 2nd.

Well, enough preaching. That's the state of our union, for real. Deal with it, but don't take it lying down. Stand up and shout. And pray like hell there's not another 9/11 between now and 2008.

On A Lighter Note, The Tortured Comedy of Dan Rather

Once again from CBS anchor Dan Rather, some of the oddest and funniest lines from Election Night. Peace y'all--back at ya' soon:

"It's the morning after the night before."

"This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex (and it has been all night)."

"If a frog had sidepockets, he'd carry a handgun."

"Bush is rolling through the Midwest like a big combine."

"We don't know whether to to wind a watch or bark at the moon."

NOVEMBER 2

According to the best estimates of journalist Greg Palast with TomPaine.org, John Kerry will go into Election Day already robbed of a million or more probable votes due to illegal vote tampering, faulty voting machines and questionable or illegal voter purges being systematically supervised by Republicans in most of the crucial swing states and Colorado. (You really should read his article at:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110204V.shtml

It shouldn't matter - Kerry should win handily anyway. Of course we should all be concerned that every election brings a greater subversion of our supposed democracy, but for a moment let's set aside all the punditry, "analysis", those confusing polls and almost everything you may have heard about the upcoming presidential election. The biggest single factor that goes almost unmentioned in the daily news coverage is that 2004 has seen an almost unprecedented surge in voter registration. With all the new voters presumably going to the polls--none of whom would ever be counted as a "likely voter" using common polling terminology--it seems that this country is itching for a change. If people were generally satisfied with the way things are, complacency would rule. There wouldn't be a surge of new voters. Turnout would remain low and the incumbent would return for a second term. The climate and the public discourse in this country does not support this idea. People may not know what kind of change they want, they may not agree on how to go about it (when do we ever?), but a-change is gonna come and most likely that change means that, eventually, John Kerry will be elected President of the United States.

A pause for silence in respect for those still angry that when Al Gore was elected President of the United States, his chance to serve was taken from him by the Supreme Court, vote tampering and his own bitterness...

The Democrats are also doing better than expected in several Senate and House races, giving them a chance to gain a couple of seats in the House and actually tie up (or regain control) of the Senate. Even if Bush steals another election, he'll have less of a "mandate" than he had in 2000 and a weary, suspicious legislative branch will be less likely to roll over and be buggered by the Administration than they have for most of the last four years.

Now, let me be clear, the election of John Kerry won't automatically turn the U.S. into a peaceful land of milk and honey. We remain more fractured and divided than any time since the peak of the Civil Rights Era. We will still have large numbers of troops in harm's way in Iraq for now and for the forseeable future. A newly energized and ever more resourceful al-Qaeda and their supporters will use their resentment over Iraq and Bush's policies to plot more heinous attacks against American interests. There will still be no peace in Palestine in the forseeable future. The gap between the rich and the poor will continue to widen while special interests in the medical and insurance lobbies work to ensure that no real universal health coverage will come to fruition.

So what? This is still the most important presidential election of our lifetime. If Bush is put into office for four more years, the damage his administration will do to our national values, our security, our civil liberties, our right to choose what to do with our bodies, our treasury and our future may be devastating and irreversible. Not everyone feels the way I do. But a lot of people know more is at stake than ever before and that's why they are cueing up for hours to vote early, registering for the first time, making their plans around their trip to the voting booth tomorrow. This one's for all the marbles folks, even if things won't seem a whole lot different come January 20th, 2005--or 2006. Somewhere the line must be drawn in the sand that says, "no more!"--

No more tacit support of Enron style corporate scandals!

No more plundering of the environment at our children's expense for wealthy tycoons!

No more troops being "remaindered" in Iraq and then sent into harm's way without the protection and ammunition they need!

No more smirking, self-satisfied, shallow policy making by evangelical neocons who have no regard for history or modern geopolitics!

No more sabotage of public schools, social security and Medicare!

No more Ashcroft, no more Rumsfeld!

No more, quoth the raven, nevermore...

If you haven't voted yet, you've got to do it tomorrow. If you don't, than any dark future that befalls us is certainly deserved by you.

Peace...