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| Wednesday, August 31st, 2005 | | 11:10 am |
A prayer for lost souls...
For all those in the New Orleans, and Biloxi, and other areas hit by the recent hurricane Katrina, thoughts and prayers with everyone at this time of need. I cannot imagine the horror, the exhaustion, the sheer magnitude of waking up to this every day if, indeed, sleep has come to anyone in the region. But I offer my profound prayer that there will be some peace, some calm and some measure of hope in the days to come. For everyone reading who is not in the region, please contact your local Red Cross and ask what you can do to help. We all need to pitch in to help our brothers and sisters. They need hope, and it is our obligation to give it where we can. Current Mood:  sympathetic | | Tuesday, May 24th, 2005 | | 9:42 am |
Thank goodness...
Fourteen Senators prevented a grievous mistake from wrecking the delicate balancing act that is the US Senate. Thank goodness. The filibuster fight appears to have stalled and perhaps have passed for the moment. It only takes a read of the Federalist Papers -- and particularly Hamilton's Federalist #66 -- to see why the advice and consent clause is so important to the balance of powers principles that knit our Republic together. Would that the President and his cronies and all the theocrats on the religious right spent more time reading American history and American political philosophy in order to truly understand how things are meant to function. The US government is a tenuous balancing act -- one segment rising as the other falls, only to have the reverse happen, all the while the third branch providing the pivot and the moderating factor. For the last few years, we have had an imbalance, with the Republican Congress ceding a lot of its power to the White House, deferring and abdicating their responsibilities of oversight and consent to the Administrative Branch. I can only hope that this, too, is passing and that some balance will be restored over the next few years, most probably through a correction in the upcoming 2006 elections when some of the more partisan members of both houses will go down to defeat at the hands of more moderate voices. This nation functions best when it is run by people who put the country and the institutions of government first, before their own self-interest. When we are overrun by the voices of extremism and greed and self-aggrandisement, as we have been for the last few years, we are not well served as a nation. Please let this be the first steps back toward a more sane and more balanced political system -- one where responsibility, fiduciary obligation and philosophical moderation is valued above fervor and ideological warfare and deafness to the views of others who may think differently than the party in power. This nation does not function well on absolutes -- no nation does -- and we would all do well to remember that the grace we seek is in our similarities and our common ground, and not in the constant heat of battles fought simply to keep the fight going. No one wins in that case except the people who make their money on the battles -- the lobbyists, the extremists, and the special interest groups who thrive on the chaos. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call to those who still have the ability to take a step back and listen to their own inner voice of reason, to listen to the call of what is right and good for everyone, and not just what is being demanded of them in the moment by an extremely polarized group of angry absolutists. Let this be the moment when we again step forward together, instead of trying to rip the government into our own little pieces of the pie. I am not hopeful that things will suddenly be more just or kind or moderate or selfless in Washington, but I am hopeful that the voices of extremes will be hushed, if only enough to allow some of the more moderate representatives to begin to listen to their own inner voices instead. That is, indeed, a small bit of hope. Current Mood:  relieved | | Friday, May 20th, 2005 | | 1:48 pm |
Enough.
If you haven't read the front page story in today's NYTimes regarding an investigation into torture deaths of prisoners in Afghanistan, then you should. It is not easy reading, but it should be mandatory reading for every single person in this country. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/international/asia/20abuse.html?ei=5094&en=6cca0512a38427c3&hp=&ex=1116648000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=allEither we stand for principles that we espouse or we do not. No Machiavellian pandering and no "ends justifies the means" baloney. I've studied a good deal of political theory in my time, and I have been friends with or related to some fine military personnel, none of whom would have condoned this kind of conduct and some of whom are currently so disgusted with the way things are that they have resigned a lifetime membership in the RNC. I'm sick to my stomach and heartsick that these sorts of stories pour endlessly forth, but no one seems to notice. Well, I notice. And I do not want my child growing up in a society where we don't all stand up and say "This is wrong." So I'm going to start right here. This is wrong. I'm not foolish enough to think that there aren't bad people in the world. Hell, I've sent a few to the penitentiary myself, and have been up close and personal with evil more times than I want to even think about. But that does not ever excuse us becoming the evil that we fight. That is wrong. Please, call your representatives in the House and Senate, call talk radio, talk with your friends about this -- whatever it takes -- but we have to stop this now before irreperable harm has been done to the reputation of this country of ours. It already may be too late, and I fear for the safety of my family and friends who are currently serving in uniform as a result. We have to all stand up and say enough. This is my line in the sand. Current Mood:  infuriated | | Saturday, May 14th, 2005 | | 1:34 pm |
Arrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!! Some asshole stole one of my birdfeeders, two flats of flowers that I had planned to plant today and two of my pepper plants last night. This is the same time as last year's theft of my birdfeeders. I am SO PISSED OFF!!!!! I'm sure it is some neighborhood juvenile whose mother has a birthday around now and is getting the thoughtful gift of my stolen property. AAAAIIIIIIIYYYYEEEEEE! I called the police last year because the fiends stole 6 -- yes, count them, 6! -- of my birdfeeders. We replaced only one of them, and moved them much closer to the house, thinking that would make them safer, but NO, yet again a feeder has been stolen. Now, I'm going to have to figure out a way to get an enormously heavy feeder, bolt it to a large wooden pole, and cement the whole thing into the ground. I adore feeding my birds, and my daughter loves to watch them out our kitchen window as we eat breakfast, and that was completely ruined today. I'm just miserable. People suck. Every once in a while, I get another little reminder, just about the time that I start getting every so slightly more optimistic away from my life as a prosecutor. Well, that's shot to hell today. Am trying to force myself into a better mood because, frankly, I just don't want the turds to have the ability to make me mope, too. But I am miserable, nonetheless. Last year's feeders that were stolen included special order gifts from Bill, including the feeder that he purchased for me the year we got married. It was heartbreaking, because I loved this one in particular, along with some of my specialty feeders for chickadees and finches. With all the work we are trying to do on the house, I don't feel like we have the funds to repurchase another feeder right now -- especially given the extra security measures we'll now have to add onto it -- and that breaks my heart. Crap. It started out as such a good morning and now my whole day is sucking. I swear, I'm going to track down the little shit who stole my feeder and tell his or her parents exctly what sort of little delinquent they are raising. Current Mood: pissed off | | Friday, May 13th, 2005 | | 9:59 am |
Nesting...
We have a pair of mourning doves that have decided to nest in the large hemlock pine trees in our back yard. The best part of this is that the nest is visible out the side windows of the family room, and I have had a fun view of the comings and goings of the parents-to-be ferrying assorted twigs, string, and other bits to the tree. They are so adorable, and have checked over and over around the area for any threats or strangeness -- but my sitting here at the computer and peering out the window has been deemed a non-threat, so I get a great view. Am going to put out a bit of cotton later for them to use for a soft lining. Can't have the momma bird sitting on nasty twigs when I can make her life a little more comfy, now can I? Will be out planting more flowers in the yard today if I can get the chance, including filling out the window box for the back patio/kitchen window with a couple of fuschias, and some cherry red impatients and white alyssum -- all of which are wonderful draws for hummingbirds and butterflies. Still no sign of the long-ordered playhous for our peanut. I now have a much better understanding of why Toys-R-Us is in financial difficulties these days -- you'd think they could deliver on something that had been ordered for over a month, wouldn't you? Oh well, guess the peanut and I will just have to play in some dirt this afternoon and watch some more birdies. Current Mood:  bouncy | | Monday, May 9th, 2005 | | 10:44 am |
Life is progressing here, although I'm still not writing nearly as much as I would like. I've been on a gardening bender the last couple of weeks, and have whipped our yard into semi-decent shape. I still have two flower beds to weed out and plant, but the two large beds in front of the house have been de-weed-i-fied and are now planted with a lovely assortment of perennials: magenta, lavender and a bright yellow/orange splashed series of gladioli; pink, white and red peonies; some bright yellow yarrow; butterfly blue scabiosa; bright pink liatris; bright orange butterfly weed (asclepias); yellow Stella d'Oro daylillies; yellow-throated deep purple daylillies; oriental lillies in assorted colors; yellow double coreopsis; pink and blue veronica; purple asters; silvery lilac-colored russian sage; bright red and pink monarda (bee balm); white daisies; moonbeam coreopsis; and mums in assorted bronze and burgandy colors. Plus, I've added a sprinkling of colorful annuals since a lot of the perennials that I planted were bareroot ones and will only start to flower profusely next season -- marigolds, verbena, pinks, and a lovely ivy geranium hanging basket for our front porch. Everything is just now beginning to sprout a bit, so it will be fun over the next few weeks to see the beds come alive. Still have a few more plants to get in the ground, but haven't been able to do so until things warm up a bit -- some bright red cannas and some mixed caladiums for around our shady back porch to contrast with the green of the hostas that are coming up there now. It's going to be gorgeous here this year, with lots of butterflies and hummingbirds all over. I planted a deep reddish-magenta butterfly bush in front of the house by the sunroom windows, which will grow to around 10 feet high -- it will provide us with some shade during the hot, humid summer, but will also provide some beautiful butterfly and hummingbird views inside. Since I do my writing in that room when I can, I thought it would be fun to attract such beauty for my view when I'm staring out the windows trying to break through the fog. ;-) We want to re-do our retaining wall around the perimeter of our property, raising it up another foot and a half or so, to create another flower bed running all the way around the edge of our yard. In the end, what I want is a cottage garden all around the house, with only a path of grass in the center across the front yard, and then a center lawn toward the main street, surrounded by beautiful perennials, roses and lillies, with a lovely maple tree in the center. We hope to eventually do some renovation to the house and build out a small sitting porch covered with a pergola and climbing roses, with french doors entering the porch from the sunroom, but that is a few years away as our budget permits. It's so fun to see how I want things in my mind's eye, and how everything is taking shape one step at a time as we go. In a few years, this house is going to be gorgeous -- right now, it's pretty beautiful without us having to do much of anything. It's great to finally be living in a home that I love so much, and that gives all of us so much joy. Am working on a new website idea as well. More news to follow on this as soon as I have any. This is something that is exciting for me, since the topic is of great interest to me and offers an opportunity to showcase something other than my usual science fiction/fantasy ideas. Should be interesting. In other news, we are rearranging our bedroom this evening to take better advantage of its layout and to open up a seating area around our fireplace. We're hoping to get some gas logs put into the fireplace before next winter, and want to get everything arranged properly to take advantage of it. It will be nice to have things in a more restful arrangement -- the bedroom is so important for comfort and peace, and ours is a bit of a jumble. We sort of threw our furniture into it when we moved in last year, without taking a lot of time to consider how we really wanted things. Now that we've had a chance to really live in the house for a while, we are trying to now get things the way we really WANT them. This is true both inside and out. So, it's sort of a late spring cleaning/rearranging/sprucing up for the entire house. Feels like I am renovating everything on the outside, which is really helping with my internal excavation as well. Hopefully, all of this will help me snap out of my long-term writer's block, but I'm taking it one step at a time and trying not to push myself. It will come when it comes. In the meantime, it is going to be gorgeous here today -- 81F, low humidity, not a cloud in the sky. The peanut and I will be out playing in our yard at various points today. We'll save some sidewalk chalk for you. Current Mood: happy | | Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 | | 4:59 pm |
Lost...
No idea how this happened, but I have gotten completely stagnant and lost somewhere in the day to day activities that are my life. I have always been abysmal at making time for my own needs anyway, but that has been completely eclipsed by the day-to-day here of late and it needs to stop. We hired a housekeeper/nanny for a few hours two days a week to free up time for me to write and work on other creative projects that have been simmering on the back burner for far too long, but instead that time has been taken up with developmental appointments for our daughter's language difficulties, numerous errands that had to be run while she was under doctor's orders to stay inside during cold and flu season here, other household chores and tasks, and insipid stretches of time surfing for useless crap online for no particular reason, let alone family food preparation, the myriad of diaper changes and play time and such, the follow-up therapy that I have been doing with her, and the little bit of time I get to spend with my increasingly busy husband who is currently swamped with work. It is my own fault -- I have allowed everything else in my life to take over all space for my own personal passions, and haven't spent even the tiniest sliver of time dreaming any dreams for myself for months on end. But now I am out of practice. The most writing that I have done for months has been morning pages on a seriously irregular basis, or working on a store list for a trip to the grocers. The good news is that I have awakened from my stupor to recognize that this is, indeed, a problem that must be tackled. The bad news -- I am rusty, and lack faith in myself to re-start on any project in particular, and to top it off, I still suck at taking time for myself. What the hell? I am a 36 year old woman, intelligent, thoughtful, literate, anal and organized when it comes to doing things for everyone else -- why can't I put myself at the top of my "to do" list once in a while? All this to say, I'm finally posting an update. Haven't bothered to do one in so long because, really, there wasn't much to update on the me front. My life has settled into a serious rut and I need to shock myself out of it, and quick. I suppose the first step in conquering a problem is to admit it. The next step will be deciding which project to tackle and then putting butt to chair. In the meantime, our wonderful peanut is two years old as of the end of March, and as cute as can be. She is up to 38 words -- the word of the week this week has been "dinosaur," how cute is that? Oh, and I have lost 6 pounds since last Monday by simply eating more sensibly and trying to be conscious of making better, more healthy choices. Amazing what you can do for yourself by simply cutting back on junk and drinking a little mroe water, isn't it? Hope everyone else is well. I'll pop in and give an update of the journey from malaise. Current Mood:  contemplative | | Sunday, November 21st, 2004 | | 11:59 am |
Thought some of the folks here might be interested in this. It's an especially tough thing to be stationed in a combat zone over the holidays. It's a great program - and one that means an awful lot to the soldiers who finally get some mail and comfort from home. I remember how much it meant to all of the guys in my West Point buddy's platoon in the first Gulf War, and I'm sure that there are hundreds of soldiers out there who are dealing with the same thing this time around. It's a shame that some families aren't good about caring for their own, but no soldier ought to feel like he has no support from home when s/he is fighting for her/his country. This group fills that gap, and I thought some of the folks who read here might appreciate what that would mean to the soldiers on the receiving end. Anyway, here's the URL: http://www.mville.edu/news/NEWS_nov04_mysoldier.HTML Current Mood: hopeful | | 11:53 am |
Update
Have a few minutes to update in here. It's been incredibly busy here since we got home from the visit to Bill's folks and WFC in Arizona. I caught a cold while I was out there, and came home to find that it had morphed into full-blown bronchitis. Spent an entire week as a zombie, snatching sleep whenever possible. (Just a note to everyone I got to see at WFC -- wow, was it good to see you guys! It was such a blast to just be able to hang out and talk about writing for a while. I hadn't realized how much I had been missing it until I got there. So great to spend time with my friends.) In between, we took mini-Fi to her neurology appointment, which turned out well at this point. No signs of any neurological issues that are clearly identifiable with regard to her lack of speech/communication/recognition issues, but there are some signs that need to be monitored that could indicate possible autism spectrum issues. Long story short, things look good at this point, but we're still keeping an eye on things and will be going back for a follow-up in two months. We've had no less than three additional evaluations for a "Birth to Three" program that is available through our state Department of Health and Human Services for speech and developmental therapy that is done in our house by trained therapists. It looks like we'll be getting twice-weekly speech therapy for Fiona, along with at least a monthly developmental session, and additional testing by an occupational therapist to make sure there isn't a problem with muscle tone that is delaying her speech. It looks like I'm going to be juggling lots of appointments and in-home services, along with the follow-up work we'll be doing together in between visits, for several months at the very least. Bill and I are very hopeful that this will help, but since it hasn't started yet, we just aren't sure what to expect from all of this. I've started putting up Christmas decorations a little bit at a time. The new house is so big that we got a second Christmas tree for our living room. Will try to get a couple of pictures to post soon, because Fiona has been hilarious about trying to yank off all the balls and heave them at the kitty. Thankfully, I chose plastic ones for this particular tree, since it is well within her reach every day -- it has turned out to be a really good choice on my part. LOL Anyway, that's our update. We have our services coordination meeting on the 29th, so I will know more about how our schedule will shape out from there with therapy sessions for Fiona. It looks like we won't really be doing any travel for a while, so I'm going to have to ask that the folks who want to see us come here, if they can - between therapy stuff and our pediatrician's request that we keep Fiona in as much as possible during cold and flu season this year to keep her from having another hospital stay because of the possible ramifications to her lung development, we're just not taking any chances. Sorry, but what works best for our peanut is what we are doing this year, but we have more than enough room for company. :) Hope all is well with everyone else. And I hope that your turkey day is full of yummy food! :) Current Mood:  exhausted | | Wednesday, October 13th, 2004 | | 4:05 pm |
Mwahahahahahahahahaha. Man, did I need a laugh today. It's raining and cold here, and I have a sore throat and a fever. I'm running a "Women for Kerry/Edwads" party tomorrow night, so I'm trying to rest up today and get rid of this ick. Found this posted in a friend's ng and thought I'd share it around. hahahahahahaha http://victoryfund.njdc.org/bubbie/ Current Mood: amused | | Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 | | 10:45 am |
| | Sunday, October 10th, 2004 | | 10:50 am |
This article is a great read. It really gets to the heart of what I have heard from family and friends who have served/are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. That this level of frustration is being expressed openly to a reporter is astonishing to me. Our troops are performing a duty that is so difficult, so constantly exhausting and frightening, that it amazes me that we can still find soldiers who are willing to re-enlist at the end of a tour. We have to do better. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20794-2004Oct9.htmlAm interested in what everyone will think about this. Current Mood: moody | | Thursday, October 7th, 2004 | | 4:56 pm |
It is becoming more and more clear to me that this election is going to turn on which party does a better job with their get out the vote operations. That means the Kerry campaign can use every body it can get its hands on -- which means, if you aren't already volunteering, please think about doing so. This election means an awful lot to all of us. A few short hours of your time could mean all the difference. Wouldn't you love to send the Shrub back home to his ranch to clear brush for good? Please call your local Kerry campaign office and offer your time. They are planning a huge voter canvass this Saturday and will likely be running phone banks in your area until Nov. 2. A couple of hours of your time could make all the difference! Current Mood: energetic | | Monday, October 4th, 2004 | | 11:11 am |
Our Fi needs neurological testing...
I wanted to give an update while I had a minute. Fiona is still not talking much (she has maybe 4 words, and that's on a good day) and is still not all that responsive communicatively, so our pediatrician has scheduled a series of neurological tests and hearing tests for her that will (it looks like as of today) include an MRI for her. This may relate to the brain issues that were spotted while she was in utero, but they aren't telling us anything beyond "we'll have to wait until all of the tests are concluded, but she seems to be a happy and healthy little girl." I have gone into anal retentive worry overdrive, but I'm trying to remain calm. The worst that we could be looking at is some diagnosis of autism or muteness to some degree, but they are hopeful that this may be something that can be corrected through speech and developmental therapy. Our pediatrician doubts that muteness is a factor, since she babbles fairly well in a nonsensical way. It's a puzzle, though, because she is so far ahead on problem-solving skills and all of ther fine and gross motor skills for her age -- our ped told me today that she presents at almost a 3 year old level in some areas of this, so I'm stymied with the communications issues and how this fits together. All they've told me to do so far is to continue to read and sing to her, and to continue listening to music and playing. So we wait for more tests and hope for the best. Her next tests are not until Oct. 20 and then on Nov. 9, and then whatever gets scheduled as a result of those. Please send some hopeful thoughts our way. Our ped seemed way too worried at our appointment today, mainly because she seems to happy and ahead in every other way, and now I'm just trying very hard not to freak out. Bill left for work immediately after we got home, so it's just me trying to deal with this while Fi is down for her nap and today, for whatever reason, I'm just not doing so well with it. Still, I'm hoping that some speech therapy will be all we need -- we'll know more hopefully by mid-November. Meanwhile, think positive. -- Christy Current Mood: pensive | | Saturday, October 2nd, 2004 | | 11:55 pm |
| | Friday, October 1st, 2004 | | 3:07 pm |
| | 1:52 pm |
Got this in my e-mail today and I wanted to post my response here as well. ______________________ Okay, I'm going to start by saying that on the facts regarding the specific attack timelines, he's fairly accurate. And not saying anything new as far as it goes, considering this is all stuff that I studied in graduate school in my security studies classes when I was working on my Masters in foreign policy and political science, with an emphasis on national security studies, so this is all familiar territory for me. These were all things on the radar screen at that time (in 1991/92) and since that time have all been in the news off and on for anyone who reads the serious foreign policy and security/defense analysis journals. (I admit it, I'm a policy wonk at heart, so I do. Call me nerdy. )
No argument with him that we need to ALL wake up and realize that there are serious people out there who present serious threats to our security and who are willing to do pretty much anything to attack us. These Islamic jihadists are not, I repeat NOT, just a bunch of wild-eyed barbaric blood-hungry wackos, but are highly intelligent, well educated, strategically crafty and monitarily well-funded adversaries, and people that we have consistently underestimated for years to our peril. We must do a better job at undercutting their support in the poorest areas of the world by helping to raise the standards of living and the level of hope, while simultaneously trying to cut the head off the ever-growing hydra that is al quaeda and its allies through covert operations and increased intelligence gathering on the ground and strategic military application, as well as significantly undercutting their sources of funding. Crime arises in this country most frequently in our poorest and most destitute neighborhoods, areas without hope for any opportunity or advancement, (I know, I used to prosecute these folks on a daily basis, and I can tell you that a man without hope is apt to become involved in anything that gives him a sense of purpose, no matter how twisted and wrong it may be.) and the same is true for the recruitment for al quaeda and other terrorist organizations -- they do their best work where people feel forgetten, without pride or hope, and we must do a better job with that along with help from our allies across the globe. A daunting task for any government, and one that has no ready answers, but something that requires very, very careful planning and discussion across many fronts.
Also, no argument that this should not be something treated as a political football, since it threatens everyone in this country, and really everyone who values freedom and plurality across the world. Unfortunately, in this election year, we've all stopped talking about what we can all do together (like we were mercifully doing in the immediate aftermath of 9/11) and instead have started down the idiotic road of finger pointing and calling people unpatriotic for asking questions about how best to defend our nation. That must stop, because our very safety depends on our ability to constantly ask how we can do things better and our ability to adapt to constantly shifting tactics of a well-trained and frighteningly adept enemy. If we don't all start requiring every politician in this country to start talking with us like we are all adults, and if we don't force them to be honest about the facts and make them face up to constructive criticisms from all sides, then we are already doomed -- this is too important to play politics with it, because my daughter's future is on the line, and for me that is the single most important consideration on a daily basis. I have to say that I was very pleased with the tone of last night's Presidential debate, when we finally got around to discussing real issues instead of having to listen ad naseum to the ridiculous campaign dirty commercials this year. This nation needs a real discussion on our direction and the smartest ways to proceed, not a bunch of mud-slinging political professional hacks on talking head shows on cable. We deserve better, and I think we should all demand that we get just that for the rest of the election - this is too important to reduce to a 30 second sound bite.
That said, his conclusions are just flat out wrong on the facts in some places. I will do a point by point below as I go through the article to show you where. This is the problem with e-mails that are meant to inflame feelings of patriotism and American superiority, and to bring people to see the Republicans as the only supporters of defense strategies. I say this only because many of the attacks referenced below occurred during the Reagan presidency, but the only names he mentions as being asleep at the wheel are Carter and Clinton, which is a clearly partisan oversight on his part, IMHO -- and something that is completely false and misleading. Every President since Richard Nixon (and maybe before that) has made mistakes on the issue of global terrorism and the rise of Islamic fundamentalist jihadism -- easy to do, since they all have to make decisions in real time about issues that are incredibly complex and which raise high emotions in the American public since they often deal with the deaths of American citizens and soldiers. Also difficult because the issue of Israel and our support for that nation is intertwined in this, with the Palestinian situation used as a recruiting tool effectively by these groups, and for reasons that have some merit when seen through the eyes of muslims, especially those living in the region. (What the answer is there, though, I have NO idea. Just mentioning the words Israel and Palestinian raises hackles on both sides of the issue and I'm not certain that it can ever be fully resolved. It's like the Hatfields and McCoys writ large in many, more deadly ways, with consequences that reverberate across the world every single minute. Israelis have earned the right to live in peace, but so have the Palestinians, and you have to feel very sorry for the every day people on both sides who are caught in the middle of the extremist warzones from the more militant ends of both sides.) The responsibility for our lack of focus on this issue lays not at the feet of only Democrats, but of everyone, including the public at large, for all of us taking our eye off the ball far too frequently because we didn't think that it could happen on American soil. Boy were we wrong.
Take any time to listen to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CN) or Joe Biden (D-DE) or John Breaux (D-LA) or Bob Graham (D-FL) (I could go on and on with names of Democrats who have been working on these issues for years, as well as Republicans like John McCain (R-AZ), Chuck Hegel (R-NE) and Richard Lugar (R-IN)), and you will see people who vigorously defend this nation on a daily basis and who thoughtfully attempt to work in a bi-partisan manner in a lot of cases to find the best possible ways to defend our borders, our citizens and our soldiers. At the same time, we have to have room to debate and discuss the best way to proceed on these issues. We can't just take one road and stick to it, no matter how badly things go on it, just because it's the road we chose at the start. We must be smarter, more willing to constantly question ourselves on whether we are doing the best thing, and we must be crafty in coming up with ways to thwart those who would kill us without a thought as to innocence or non-combatant status. We also can't resort to name-calling or claiming that someone is unpatriotic simply because they question the direction we have taken -- when, in the history of our nation, has it ever been unpatriotic to question our government, especially on an issue as gravely important as our national defense? Our Founding Fathers would be horrified at the notion that this has even become an argument, especially in such difficult and threatening times. Of course we have to ask questions about which direction is best, otherwise how do we determine if what we are doing is working or not? We need more common sense and less finger pointing.
It's an interesting e-mail. One that raises a lot of issues that have come up again and again with the 9/11 Commission Report most recently and with serious national security analysts for years. The solutions aren't so easy, though, and we ought to be talking more and more about them and requiring every politician to be doing the same, honestly and without finger-pointing. There's plenty of blame to go around for all of us through the years.
In a message dated 10/1/2004 11:21:18 AM Eastern Standard Time, XXXXXXXXX writes:
WORLD WAR THREE
Not very long, but very informative. You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, re-set the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years.
C: Okay, to start with, no one other than Ralph Nader and anti-war protestors are saying that we should just bring our troops home from Iraq now without completing some mission of achieving stablity in Iraq. Or in Afghanistan, for that matter. That's just ludicrous as a claim and so completely unsupported by any facts, I'm just going to say that this is a false claim and leave it at that. Also, no one in their right mind would say that we should fall back into some sort of cocoon and hope that no one attacks us again -- that would be dangerous and idiotic, and no one is saying that who has any political credibility on either side, Republicans or Democrats. It makes for nice inflammmatory reading, but this opening paragraph is simply a false attempt to manipulate people into believing an untruth that is, presumably, directed at Sen. Kerry or Democrats or the euphamistic "liberals" who seem to consistently be the targets of these sorts of e-mails. This is just wrong. Period.
US. Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave recently. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary.
C: Here, I have a small problem. I have a genuine mistrust of anyone who sends out an e-mail using only a last name as a reference point. Does this person have a first name which could be fact-checked by anyone who might wish to do so? This always makes me highly suspicious of the accuracy of these sorts of e-mails, since this does not contain and entire name, place and date of the speech, and the name of the sponsor of the event. Nitpicky, perhaps, but I'm cynical in my old age.
AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed)
C: Also nitpicky, but the number of casualties on 9/11 was less than 3,000.
and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 23 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and downsized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
C: Here, the speaker mentions only President Carter in relation to the failed rescue mission and our "decimated military." But there were Nixon and Ford presidencies in between the end of the Vietnam War and the Carter Administration who share some of the blame on this as well. You can't only mention a Democrat if you want to make a claim that you are not pointing political fingers. This was a serious low point for the entire nation -- I remember well the news coverage on a day to day basis throughout the hostage crisis and that Presidential campaign with Ronald Reagan. I would also argue with the premise that this started with the Iranian hostage crisis, since we had also witnessed terrorist threats at the Munich Olympics and throughout a lot of Europe well before this -- it had been a growing international threat for some time throughout the early 1970s, due to increasing tensions between the nations of the Islamic Middle East and Israel, and our role in some of the issues there.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people.
The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.
Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.
C: Here is the biggest problem for me. Clinton came into office in 1993. ALL of the previous acts of terror referenced above took place from 1980 to 1988. NOT ONE of them had anything to do with President Clinton's terms in office, so how can this person say that he treated them as criminal matters? In fact, every one of these incidents took place under Ronald Reagan's presidency before even George H.W. Bush took office, so any issues with how they were handled should be addressed to Reagan's decisions. This is blatantly misleading and partisan. Also, there were many other incidents between 1988 and 1993, during the first President Bush's tenure in office, but they have been conveniently omitted in this speech (or at least the portions that were e-mailed out by whomever started this in the first place after hearing the speech).
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war?
The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
C: Again, false and misleading. There were a number of ongoing investigations as well as covert operations which were launched regarding this threat. There were also additional threats to the United Nations building in NYC during this same time frame. All of these incidents were linked to Osama Bin Laden and al quaeda by investigators and to Islamic extremists who were based throughout the Middle East and East Asia, with concentrations in Egypt and Pakistan. Efforts were made (not very successfully, in my opinion) to deal with this threat, which resulted in a lot of the terrorists moving into Afghanistan via aid from the Taliban. This is where the more organized al quaeda was born, but it is misleading to say that the snooze button was depressed here when we had substantial ongoing covert and analytical intelligence and military operations dealing with this threat -- we just didn't hear about them a lot in the media because they were, by nature of being covert, secret at the time. The 9/11 Commission report does a fantastic job of laying out the successes and failures of this time frame and is certainly worth a read if you are interested.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.
C: Here, we had difficulties in pursuing the perpetrators of this mess because the Saudi intelligence agency picked up supposed perpetrators of this bombing and immediately executed them before we had any opportunity to interrogate them and discover their backers. It has long been thought that this attack may have been linked to some in the intelligence apparatus in Saudi Arabia, but we obviously have no hard evidence to back this up since these folks were executed so swiftly.
They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision.
They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
C: This is also detailed very well in the 9/11 Commission Report. We didn't exactly go back to sleep on the National Security level of things within the CIA, NSA and Defense Department, but the American public was certainly asleep at the wheel in following a lot of this. There are also serious questions as to how we responded to this, but the report does a great job of laying out pros and cons on it.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors.. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
C: This is also true. There is blame for both the Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies on this matter. Neither administration did even remotely enough to respond to the Cole attack -- and both had responsibility for doing something. This should have been a huge red flag that something worse was coming, and we fundamentally dropped the ball over two administrations at seeing the signs. Not without people calling them to both administration's attention, however, and this is detailed extremely thoroughly in a number of in depth news articles, the 9/11 Commission report, and a number of books that have come out from all sides. It is a fascinating study on what not to do. Although I do think that it is awfully easy to just say that we investigated but did nothing, when we of course have to investigate before we act -- we can't just go out and randomly bomb people without knowing that they are responsible, for heaven's sakes. That claim always strikes me as disingenuous at best, because anyone with common sense knows that you should be certain before you take the drastic step of killing people in the name of the US, otherwise you have an enormous amount of damage done to our reputation and our ability to get things done if we just kill innocent people and try to apologize later. That sort of snottiness about investigating the source of the bombing shows a fundamental misunderstanding of why we use force only in a discretionary way so that it can have a maximum effect.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough.
America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "...it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.
This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come.
C: Um, actually it IS a political thing, in that the decisions that have to be made must be made in a political context. And we should be discussing all of the options -- lives depend on us getting it right and being smart about what we do, not just playing follow the leader like a bunch of lemmings simply because we have soldiers in the field. I have relatives and friends in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea, across the US, and in Europe right now -- and I, for one, will not just allow them to be grist in the mill if we can fight this war in a more effective way. We must constantly question what we are doing, if only to find our own mistakes and try to do things better. We can't afford not to, when we face an enemy that can change tactics on a dime and strike us pretty much anywhere at any time. We MUST be smarter than they are, because they only have to be right once -- in order to be smarter, we must be constantly vigilent for mistakes on our part, which can only be found when we assess, over and over, what we are doing right and wrong. This is no time to require everyone to walk in lock step -- it is too important for all of our safety that we are all vigilent and all look for holes that need to be filled. We should not, however, be playing politics with all of this -- asking questions, supporting our troops, trying to find an ever-better way to do things -- THAT is American.
Please forward this to as many people as you can especially to the young people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick to protest such a necessary military action. Time to wake up!!
C: Again, in this country, thankfully, we all have the right to express our opinions, contrary or not to the current administration's policies. Protest is how we were founded, or have we all forgotten the Boston Tea Party and the Declaration of Independence? Also, there is a profound argument as to whether or not the preemptive strike in Iraq was a necessary fight in the "War on Terror." Contrary to some public claims, Iraq was not a terrorist threat to the US at the time of the war (as maintained by even the US State Department's terrorist state watch list at the time we invaded), nor is there any evidence whatsoever that Saddam Hussein had any link to al quaeda or 9/11 -- that is absolutely false and we should all start being annoyed at anyone who says that it is true. Iraq certainly is a part of the terror war now that we are there -- it has become an epicenter of anti-American Islamic extremist activity and an excellent recruiting tool for al quaeda. We must find some way to stablize the country now, we have no choice because to do less would risk instablity in the entire region, but I don't think that even the most partisan person could claim with a straight face that things aren't a mess there at the moment considering there are now whole regions of the country where our troops cannot even enter and they are growing by the day. We must find a way to make things better, and fast, because our security now absolutely depends on it. While we are at it, we also have to shore things up in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are actually growing in power again in regions outside of Kabul. We have to all start working together to find a solution and demand that politicians on both sides of the aisle stop trying to paint each other as partisan charicatures and start actually DOING their jobs and work together to find a way forward that is smarter and more effective. | | Thursday, September 30th, 2004 | | 11:14 pm |
John Kerry won this debate hands down. If we wanted a President only for his ability to repeat talking points ad naseum, then George Bush would have a better response from me -- but the President failed to fully answer any of the questions asked of him, and stuck only to his pre-written script. Sen. Kerry provided thoughtful, thorough, and intelligent responses of his own -- not pre-written scripted sound bites from his staff -- and it was clear that Sen. Kerry was far more prepared and far less nervous about this evening's debates. A Kerry win, hands down. | | 10:53 am |
This is awesome. Listen, watch and feel empowered -- then go out there and do some work for the Kerry campaign. For my daughter's future, for your future, for all of us. http://www.sharedvoice.org/unamerican/ This election is too important to sit on your ass. No excuses. Vote. And get your friends and relatives to vote. And their friends...and...well, you get the picture. Current Mood:  determined | | Saturday, September 25th, 2004 | | 9:51 am |
I don't know about you, but I think that this is a tactic that is appalling and a new low in political nastiness. Coming from WV, I think this is an effort to take advantage of a lot of the less educated folks that are very religious in our mountain communities around the state and in Arkansas, and I am absolutely horrified that the Republican party would do something like this. This is just shameful because it is so patently false and manipulative. Someone who is going to trot out the bible as a reason to vote for or against a candidate had best not be using it as a means to lie -- that is just reprehensible and an affront to any subsequent claims of moral superiority. This had me particularly steamed because this mailer apparently went to rural church goers in both WV and AR (according to a news report here), and this tells me that the RNC felt that people in both these areas would be too stupid/undereducated/unsophisticated to understand that they were being falsely manipulated by this and knowing that people in both regions hold their faith to be a dear thing in their hearts. Having grown up in WV, and knowing how much it meant to my Granny to go to her little mountain church on Sundays and how much it meant to me to go along with her when I was visiting, and what church and faith mean to everyone else on both sides of my family, this strikes me particularly strongly -- the cynicism and malice with which a mailing would be sent on religious grounds that are untrue is beyond my capacity to understand. I have tears in my eyes as I write this, knowing how my Granny cherished her bible and her Democratic values, and how a mailing like this would have enraged her. The use of religious issues to create a political wedge or for any manipulative reason is horrifying, and so far from true Christian values that I don't even know where to start. Christianity, or any religion for that matter, should never be used as a tool in the political arsenal -- it is too precious to be trotted out at election time because you need a convenient wedge issue. Shame on them -- the RNC has not even had the grace to apologize for this mailing or to issue a retraction. If this campaign gets any dirtier, we're all going to have to wear hip waders to the polls. _____________________________ Updated: 02:00 AM EDT GOP Says It Sent Mail Warning Bible Ban WASHINGTON (Sept. 24) - The Republican National Committee acknowledged this week that it distributed campaign literature in West Virginia and Arkansas warning voters that liberals want to ban the Bible. When reporters asked about the mailings on Sept. 17, RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie said he wasn't aware of the material and did not confirm that it was distributed by the GOP. However, Gillespie said it "could be the work" of the party. Contacted Friday by The Associated Press, party spokeswoman Christine Iverson said the GOP had already acknowledged it was the source of the mass mailings. The literature claims that "the liberal agenda includes removing 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance" and shows a Bible with the word "BANNED" across it. It also shows a photo of a man, on his knees, placing a ring on the hand of another man with the word "ALLOWED," a reference to same-sex marriage. The mailing tells people to "vote Republican to protect our families" and defeat the "liberal agenda." -- This was from an AP wire story of this morning 9/25. Current Mood: angry |
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