Friday, April 13, 2007

Extra Crispy Bucket of Lies

"I will admit it, [there was], we screwed up and we're trying to fix it..."
Substitute Spokesliar, Dana Perino

"We are trying to understand to the best of our ability, the universe of the e-mails that were potentially lost, and we are taking steps to make sure that we use the forensics that are available to retrieve any of those that were lost."
More BS from White House Spokesliar, Dana Perino

If there's anything that this administration can lie about, you can be sure that they will. Never in the history of this country has there been a group so predisposed to lying. They have consistently told lies rather than the truth, even when it seemed that the truth would have been the simpler path. They lied about the elections that put them in office, they lied about the 9/11 cover-up, they lied to get the country to back an invasion of Iraq, they lied about the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, they lied about the death of Pat Tillman, they lied about the Hurricane Katrina debacle, they are lying about the firing of eight US Prosecutors and they are compounding this lie, by further lying about the e-mails that might shed some light on the scandal. It's about time the American people call Bush, Cheney & Co. to task for their incessant love of falsehoods over the truth. And by that, I mean it's time to seriously consider impeachment. It's long overdue and god knows we've certainly got enough evidence to demonstrate "high crimes and misdemeanors." I do not think that this country can nor should it have to suffer through two more years of this horrible incompetence and mismanagement, never mind the outright criminal activity that has cost us billions of dollars in Iraq and thousands upon thousands of American and Iraqi lives. It seems it all gets back to Iraq - one way or the other. This e-mail/prosecutor scandal is just another symptom of the disease that has infected the Bush/Cheney administration. The disease is one of continual lies, deceit, paranoia and distrust that have been the hallmark of this administration - all engaged in to perpetuate the power and authority that the Neo-Cons that run this show have so cravenly sought for years. It's long past time to throw these bums out!

I'll be tuning in on April 25 on PBS to watch Bill Moyers ("Buying the War") document what many of us have known for quite awhile - the long list of lies that got us into Iraq and continue to keep us there.

Check out Moyers' Blog for follow-up on last night's show.

Dan Froomkin (Washington Post) E-Mail Saga Gets Fishier


Kurt Vonnegut Passes On...

Amidst the hoopla of the Imus comment and his subsequent firing (I'll leave it up to the readers of this blog to fashion their own opinions about that, there is certainly a plethora of commentary out there in the 'sphere to read, if one is so inclined), we lost another human. I'll admit that I have read only a few of Mr. Vonnegut's books (Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Galapagos, are the only ones that come readily to mind), but I have always been aware of his stand on social and political topics and his courage to write and speak-out about these important issues. Mr. Vonnegut had a fondness for librarians (see piece below) and, as a librarian, I would just like to return the compliment as an honor to him and his life that ended this week. Read on...

Here are a few "Guess the Quotes" that Steph read on the air this morning (and, shockingly, Sir Jim actually guessed one of them correctly - it must be Friday the 13th):

"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

"We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap."

"Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything."
All of the above are quotes attributed to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

August 6, 2004
I Love You, Madame Librarian
By Kurt Vonnegut
-I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.
-And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.
-So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
-And still on the subject of books: Our daily sources of news, papers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books can we find out what is really going on. I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published near the start of this humiliating, shameful blood-soaked year.
-In case you haven’t noticed, and as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war lovers, with appallingly powerful weaponry and unopposed.
-In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were. With good reason.
-In case you haven’t noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound and kill ’em and torture ’em and imprison ’em all we want.
-Piece of cake.
-In case you haven’t noticed, we also dehumanize our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.
-Send ’em anywhere. Make ’em do anything.
-Piece of cake.
-The O’Reilly Factor.
-So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and the Chicago-based magazine you are reading, In These Times.
-Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed that there were weapons of mass destruction there.
-Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn’t even seen World War I. War is now a form of TV entertainment. And what made WWI so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun. Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don’t you wish you could have something named after you?
-Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now am tempted to give up on people too. And, as some of you may know, this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine. -My last words? “Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse.”
-Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas!
-Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler.
-What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without a sense of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?

--Kurt Vonnegut is a legendary author, WWII veteran, humanist, artist, smoker and In These Times senior editor. His classic works include Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, among many others. His most recent book, A Man Without a Country, collects many of the articles written for this magazine.

Vonnegut Made Life More Bearable (Rothschild's article for The Progressive)

His Popular Novels Blended Social Criticism, Dark Humor (Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times)

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Kalyn Free - A Real Life Hero

Kalyn Free first caught my attention many years ago at the Sovereignty Symposium (an annual meeting of tribal leaders, attorneys and others interested in the promotion and support of Tribal Sovereignty). Kalyn spoke with such passion on the topic of protecting women and children from the ravages of domestic violence and I was so impressed with her talk that I went up and introduced myself and handed her one of my newly-printed business cards, mostly I was just interested in shaking this amazing advocate's hand.

Since that initial brief meeting I have been following Kalyn Free's rise in the political arena. In 2004 Kalyn ran a very exciting, although ultimately unsuccessful campaign for Congress, but from that race Kalyn saw a need for more organized support and training of Native candidates who want to run for political office. From that remarkable vision, INDN's List was born.

The Indigenous Democratic Network, INDN's List, is the only grassroots political organization devoted to recruiting and electing Native American candidates and mobilizing the Indian Vote throughout America on behalf of those candidates. Kalyn has worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to recruit, train, support, promote and elect Progressive Native candidates to local, state-wide, and national offices. Owing to Kalyn's inspirational dedication, INDN's List has grown rapidly since it was launched in February 2005. In the 2006 election, 20 of INDN's List 26 candidates won their races.

But that is only the beginning....This year INDN's List will sponsor two extraordinary events: 1) the Second Campaign Boot Camp which will train future Native leaders and their staff to run successful campaigns, and 2) "Prez on the Rez" a truly historic event that will bring together all of the 2008 presidential candidates in a forum with tribal leaders to discuss issues that impact Indian Country. Both of these events will be hosted at the Resort of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Cabazon California, August 20 - 25, 2007 with the "Prez on the Rez" forum taking place on August 23rd. Please check out INDN's List web site and also visit the site created for "Prez on the Rez." Please consider making a donation to support this important work.

Kalyn Free is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.