So Much to Talk About

Holding On to My Voice

It has been a long time since I last posted, and I have a lot on my mind. Part of the time I was sick with that flu thing that's been going around. Now, my wife has it. I used a lot of my free time to edit a tribute video for a friend's 50th birthday, and I have actually had sporadic employment.

The NY Times McCain Story
I'm going to start with a brief response to the NY Times story last week about McCain's 2000 campaign: I don't care. As far as it being fodder for the fall presidential race, it would be like the canon is firing oatmeal: it's a little sticky but easily washes off. Neither the close ties to lobbyists nor the implied ties to one lobbyist in particular matter to me. Except for the assertion that he has, in the past, had lapses of judgment, it's not news. Special Interests glom onto politicians like remoras on a shark, like hookers on conventioneers. It's the nature of the business. Besides, what's the relevance to this year's race?

I'm less interested at what someone running for president did eight years ago than I am with the unconstitutional, criminal behavior over the last eight years that the Bush administration is apparently going to get away with.

Bad Pelosi
Nothing about the present Congress disappoints me more than Nancy Pelosi's stubbornly keeping impeachment "off the table." It's like that old parlor trick. She's pulled off the tablecloth but the grounds for impeachment remain in place. I understand not wanting to create a quid pro quo impeachment scenario between the Legislative and Executive branches when they are run by opposite parties, but a violation is a violation, and perjury over infidelity is not the same thing as violations of the Constitution and our civil liberties.

Good Pelosi
On the other hand, I applaud the House for refusing to rubber stamp the domestic surveillance bill, albeit by hanging their hat on the immunity clause for the telecoms involved in warrantless wiretapping. I am sorely disappointed in the Senate for passing it, though.

How many times have the senators in the presidential race had to defend their awkward voting record? You'd think that after the Iraq War vote and the vote authorizing torture and the continued funding of the war, the majority would get tired of the backpedaling and move forward with resolve toward stopping an insane administration bent on the disintegration of the country's dignity and respect. By continually agreeing to an incompetent president's self serving requests, the Senate enables the continued degradation of America's standing in the world, even as they try to blame it all on Bush.

The B-Movie Nightmare Ticket
Speaking of senators running for president, I want to make it clear - and I hope that the majority of Democrats are with me on this - that despite Wolf Blitzer wanting to make it so, Obama and Clinton are not a "dream ticket," no matter (you should pardon the expression) who is on top. The only way that it could resemble a dream is if they were both president, that is, a hybrid - Clibama, if you will, or Obinton. That's something, though, that could only happen in a Hollywood movie, which may be why the LA debate crowd were so enthusiastic about it.

Don't Make Me Ralph
Finally, I hope I am right in believing that only a modicum of seething is appropriate over the news that Ralph Nader has entered the presidential race as a third party candidate. I trust that it is too late for even him to have an impact. As he said this morning on Meet the Press:

"If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans
this year, they ought to just wrap up,
close down, emerge in a different form."

Ya think?

-PBG

Comparing Healthcare

This is a link to Kaiser's comparison charts for the '08 presidential candidates' healthcare programs. I haven't had a chance to evaluate each candidate's stand myself, but this is an interesting tool.

http://www.health08.org/sidebyside.cfm

Many Rivers to Cross - A Boomer's Remorse

Leadership, the River and the Promised Land

Somewhere we got the idea that an age of fulfilled promise and hope is beyond our grasp. How many opportunities do we have in a lifetime to change the direction of a government? How many times do we have in a lifetime to impose the will of fair, honest policy, of truly new vision, on an awkwardly political and corrupt system?

In 1968, when passion moved both reverends and radicals to march together to change the outcome of failing social and political processes, we had Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden to radicalize us, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy to point out the way and Eugene McCarthy to take us down the road. We looked to them as agents we could count on to force change.

For forty years we have wandered in the wilderness of post industrialism, replacing the carefree excesses of free love with the careless excesses of conspicuous consumption. It's as if the will to fight for our dreams died on a motel balcony in Memphis, or in a hotel ballroom in Los Angeles, or behind a cloud of teargas, billy-clubs and bayonets on the streets of Chicago.

When we had opportunities to grow, we shrank back; when we had opportunities to move forward, we shuffled in place; when we had opportunities to apply the wisdom of organization, of raising consciousness, of being in action to create change, we remained in ignorant bliss, watching MTV, buying PDAs and and investing in the dot-com boom.

Well now I wonder. Our Moses has "been to the mountaintop" and "seen the promised land," and while many believe that was the end of it, it was not over. We actually have the ability to move forward across the Jordan.

(Please indulge me this biblical exploration, my friends. I've only a little more to go.)

Yes, we elected a new congress, one that we thought would lead us in a new direction. But they were like the ten doubtful spies that returned after exploring the Promised Land. Their minds were hardened by the old ways of Egypt, that even after all we have witnessed in the past forty years, even the battles of the last seven years, they doubt the strength of the faithful. They bow instead to the establishment, to the milquetoast centrism preached by the priests of the Democratic Leadership Council.

Yet some do know. I believe that, like Joshua and Caleb, Barack Obama and Dennis Kucinich can lead us away from those who would sacrifice principles for the purse. But it does not have to be them. In fact, there is no them without us. We the people inherit the land. We the people create the change. Once more, we must wade into the river. Once more, we must be faithful that the water will abate until we are safely across. Once more, into the breach.

Who would have thought we would have another opportunity to overcome? Let's not let this one pass.

-PBG

Surge Plus 365

A War Going Better Is Not a Better War

Here we are, a year after Bush announced the Surge. Brave men and women have fought and died and many parts of Iraq have settled down, but the flaccid influence of America continues to slowly stir the morass of dysfunctional politics around the world.

Instead of being a banner of freedom we have become the hammer of destruction. It's like slamming a country over the head, and when it raises its bruised and beaten face, Uncle Sam says, "See? I told you freedom wasn't free."

-PBG