Exits & No Exits

Exits & No Exits

The media narrative this week has been “exits,” especially on exiting the race for ’08. But the one exit that matters most—from Iraq—has been yet again pushed to the narrative background along with the fraud surrounding the Afghanistan arms contract, which once again smacks of the Bush administration’s inept management of the wars they wage—you know, the ones that bomb, bomb McCainy supports.

Instead of the Iraq War, which just hit its 5 year mark, or Bush being the main character in the media exit novella, Hillary has been cast in that role and what a prima donna she’s become. The sad part about this opera is that it seems like it’s going to end like all operas end, in tragedy. I can almost hear the sounds of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

There’s no question at this point: Hillary should go, not just for the party’s sake but also for her political future. The math is not on her side; the momentum is not on her side; the media is certainly not on her side—the least said about the latest lecture from the Dolores Umbridge of the right wing, Smeggy Noonan, the better; and the primary electorate is not on her side.

More importantly, in a strange way, Hillary’s campaign has NOT been on her side: Fumble after fumble, mistake after mistake, misstatement after “misspoke,” even with the few but well-publicized fumbles in the Obama campaign that perhaps could’ve worked to their advantage, the Clinton campaign has been disastrous with media-emergency management. They sadly resemble “heckuva job” Brownie—sorry. It’s been a dismaying collage of a whole lot of money, a whole lot of bravado for a whole lot of incompetence.

It’s interesting that a subtext to the media exit narrative has been Hillary’s contingency plans, if and when she decides to exit the race. Governor of New York? Senate Majority leader? On Friday evening’s Countdown and in the blogosphere, this story took hold. And what’s even more interesting, as Johnathan Alter mentioned on Countdown, there’s even been chatter about Obama’s contingency plan, should he become the nominee and lose to bomb, bomb McCainy, a media lover-boy whose many misstatements and frightening fumbles, along with the Iraq war, lurk in the media background as Hillary and Barack are on center stage.

Geeze. If only the media shifted its attention from whether or not Hillary would exit, who is urging her to exit—granted, she should go, what she will and could do when she exits, what Barack might do should he lose the general and exit the senate...to an exit from Iraq—given that now over 4,000 American lives have been sacrificed, maybe we could seriously think about what needs to be done once George W. Bush thankfully exits from a job he should have never had in the first place.

"The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.

To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back."

Things just keep getting better for the troops, don't they?

A Different World

So, it looks like we're re-thinking that whole Blackwater business. When you take into account the amount of innocent civilians they've killed and the fact that their services are costing us, annually, approximately $520 million dollars in Iraq ALONE, I'd say that's a pretty good idea.

Especially considering the 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard, who just returned from the longest deployment in the Iraq war (729 days to be exact), were denied the education benefits they should receive from the GI Bill. Why were they denied? Because those benefits don't kick in until day 730. One day. That's awfully convenient.

Are we really that pressed for money that we need to deny these soldiers the extra $500-$800 per month they're entitled to for school after they've put their lives on the line for the country? Isn't that what it says on the commercials - sign up for the war, and we'll pay for your education? Can we really afford to pay the Blackwater security detail approximately $1,400 a DAY and shut out our own soldiers?

Oh, and it's the liberals who don't support the troops? That's funny.

NOT IT!

NOT IT!

As I told the master of wit in the blogoshpere, the ever-sharp Jollyroger, George W. Bush decisively wins at playing “NOT IT!” this week. I was just waiting for W. to stick his forefinger on his nose and do a dance. But George wasn’t the only contestant on NOT IT! There were several, and considering that some of these folks are heavy-weights in American culture—poor Britney was just a tad heavier than anorexia America wanted, George DID, in fact, legitimately dominate at “NOT IT!” The least said about the 2000 election the better.

We all know that T.A.N.G (that’s Texas Air National Guard) George has a string of victories at NOT IT! Let's not forget that George got jiggy with NOT IT! in the ‘60s to dodge Vietnam. So avoiding responsibility comes natural to him. But I certainly didn’t expect George to announce NOT IT! on Thursday night when he basically declared that his replacement will have to deal with HIS mess in Iraq. Stunning, I know. But yet again, his biggest accomplice, the mainstream media, also reigned victorious at NOT IT! for NOT emphasizing this simple, obvious fact. They've sought solace in the latest O.J. episode.

We should’ve known that NOT IT! would be the latest 15 minute, American fad, for last Sunday Britney Scissorhands won at NOT IT! in her alleged comeback performance. This zeitgeist fever oozed into Monday and Tuesday when General Petraeus basically said NOT IT! to Senator John Warner—a Republican, no doubt—to Warner’s question about whether or not the General’s plans in Iraq would make America safer. Petraeus’s reply: “Sir, I don’t know actually!” Bingo: NOT IT!

However, the players to watch at NOT IT!, as Paul Krugman brilliantly pointed out in his Friday column, “A Surge, and Then A Stab,” are Bush’s business associates, namely his oil friends who seem to know that the surge is NOT working, that the Iraq war will NOT yield success, that things will NOT get better, and that the NOT IT! foreign policy of the Bush administration has NOT been good, to say the least.

American Confessions

American Confessions

OK, so I just caught Senator Vitter’s DC Madam Press Conference on Spitball. It was a spectacular affair. There with his wife, who was interestingly clad in what seemed to be a leopard print dress, the disgraced Senator confessed to his sins, admitted in so many words that what he did was hugely embarrassing, and then allowed the wife to talk. Wifey, a.k.a. Wendy Vitter, a.k.a. "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary,” who once stood proud criticizing the sins of Billy Clinton, declared that this was a deeply private matter between her and husband. The lady did protest too much, methinks.

Look, I like American confessions. I love the confessional poetry of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Langston Hughes. I loved the times when, bada bing, Tony Soprano strangely confessed his troubles to Dr. Melfi. And I truly appreciated it when certain senators in the Democratic Party admitted to making the wrong choice when they voted to authorize Chimpy to go to war in Iraq.

Quite frankly, I don’t care what people do in their private lives, including Senator Vitter and his sexcapades with prostitutes. Maybe he and his party should think twice before throwing stones…in a madam’s house. The war in Iraq and the plights of our troops are far more important. That we can’t get the Iraq War cheerleaders to engage in some American confessions of their own is far more of a shame than what or whom Senator Vitter did in his private life.

WEEK IN REVIEW: THE D & M FLASHBACK

THE D & M FLASHBACK

I couldn’t get that ditty out of my mind. She was a bit country. He was a bit rock-n-roll. She was a bit of Memphis and Nashville. He had a little bit of Motown in his soul.

Maybe it was the sugar overdose. Perhaps it was the toddler parent caffeine addiction so many of us feed. It could very well have been the last lap for teachers; as we crawl on our hands and knees to June, anything and everything seems like a hallucination. Nope—there was another reason for my 8-track flashback.

Like a bad K-TEL vinyl compilation of ‘70s music, it was a Donny & Marie kind of week here in good ol’ America. Hell, even King George wanted to take all of us back, including the Queen of England, to 1976, that cheery sun shine, big smile, big love era. Of course, as expected, Chimpy’s ‘70s vinyl had one too many skips, and he had to go to 1776 before he got to 1976. Can our royal f**k-up get anything right?

With HBO’s Big Love due for its second season and porn-star named Mitt Romney showing his photogenic face and sexy smile all over the place, Mormonism proved to be as hot now as it was when the Osmonds dominated the cultural landscape back in the day. Of course, thanks to Rev. Al Sharpton, who’s always good for inserting feet into mouth while making stock prices for Hypocrisy.com soar, things have got even hotter than my D & M show theme fantasy. Hey, you can’t tell me that Larry King resurrecting Marie Osmond from the Kathy Griffith D-list for insightful commentary on his show this week was a coincidence.

But don’t let The Donnie & Marie Flashback worry you: it might be a sign of good things to come. Romney’s turning on the Bush administration. Several Republican congressmen are turning on the Bush administration. The ground game in Iraq is FOREVER turning on the Bush administration, with yet another stunning report that billions in oil money have oozed into the ether. And Fredo—who sadly can’t distinguish one lie from another lately—enables countless others rightfully to turn on the Bush administration.

Mesmerized by that ditty, though, I foolishly got stuck in my daydream believing. As sky rockets were in flight amidst an afternoon delight, I experienced the ultimate artificial high: The Internets (s intended) reported that for 12 seconds, CNN international had an incorrect breaking news announcement that Bush resigned, which literally broke my high. Where is my gold dust woman when I need her?

FROM THE FRONTLINE: A conscientious student's reflection

NOTE: This entry was sent to me from one of my former students--AR--who currently attends UCONN and who was at the Peace Rally in Hartford on Saturday. A huge thanks to AR for being more than 1% more conscious and for making some of his former teachers very proud; may the force be with him.

By AR

I participated in the Peace Rally in Hartford on March 17th. The emotions were high as some notable speakers such as Rosa DeLauro, John Larson, Susan Bysiewicz, and others spoke out against Bush and his war, demanding its end. It was a very powerful demonstration until the end when everyone quietly left. I was amazed to see that it was us students who decided to take action without major support from the adults. In moments we were organizing a march among different student organizations from across the state. This was what was needed, a true peaceful demonstration around the city to spread our word of Peace. Despite such peaceful intentions, police arrested one of our fellow protestors for beginning to lead the march. Soon after the arrest, the number of student protesters dropped tremendously. I cannot blame them completely, for I am sure none of them have ever faced jail before. However, several other students and I were outraged by this unconstitutional act and decided to march from the Old State Building to Police Headquarters where he was being held. There were 8 marchers and 15 more students drove to meet us there where we protested until our friend was released. During this period I could not help but feeling angry, scared, amazed, and sad. I was angry that our friend was arrested. I was scared that even I might be arrested. I was amazed that the police would go as far as they did. But mostly I was sad. I felt sorrow for our friend, but I felt more sorrow for our country. Our Bill of Rights is under attack. We are slowly becoming like the very enemy our forefathers fought. What has America come to if innocent students and others cannot express their first amendment right to peacefully protest the government? What is American when we need permission to use our rights? How can democracy survive if we cannot exercise the rights that make our democracy and the rights that made this country great? This country is turning into hypocrisy and slowly it is turning away from democracy. Our right to protest the government is what gave the people power. The government of the people, by the people, and for the people is what makes our democracy like no other. Without our right to protest, we have no power, and if the people have no power, we have no democracy. These are sad times for our country. I hope people realize these injustices and act before it is too late.