Bush...escapes frequently to his 1,600-acre ranch. He is currently immersed in a five-week stay away from Washington, the longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years, according to The Washington Post.
A presidential spokesman said the time in Crawford is a time for Bush to ''shed his coat and tie and meet with folks in the heartland and hear what's on their minds."
This week, the president will meet with his economic advisers and foreign policy team, go to a fundraising lunch, and attend a Little League championship game. So far, Sheehan is not on his agenda. But he knows what is on her mind, and that is his excuse for declining to meet with her.
So it's okay for the President to "meet with folks in the heartland and hear what's on their minds" as long as they agree with him, apparently. But if you are the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, he doesn't have the courage to hear what's on your mind.
A real leader doesn't dodge the tough questions. A real leader does not just meet with the "common people" that make him look good. A real leader would meet with Cindy Sheehan.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
More on Presidential Vacations
We Should Not only Expect, but Demand Better Answers from a President
But most of all, she is tapping into a growing popular feeling that the Bush administration is out of touch with the realities, and the costs, of the Iraq war...Ms. Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Baghdad. She says she and her family met privately with Mr. Bush two months later, and she is sharply critical of how the president acted. He did not know her son's name, she says, acted as if the meeting was a party and called her "Mom" throughout, which she considered disrespectful.
...Bush obviously failed to comfort Ms. Sheehan when he met with her and her family. More important, he has not helped the nation give fallen soldiers like Casey Sheehan the honor they deserve. The administration seems reluctant to have the president take part in events that would direct widespread attention to soldiers' funerals or to the thousands who have returned with serious injuries.Perhaps most troubling, Mr. Bush is not leveling about where things stand with the war. He continues to stay on message, as he did with the platitude he offered last week: "We will stay the course; we will complete the job in Iraq." The public knows that things in Iraq are not going well on any number of levels, and deserves a fuller, more honest discussion led by the commander in chief.
Just 38 percent of the respondents in a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, a new low, approved of Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq. That does not mean the remaining 62 percent agree with Ms. Sheehan that the troops should come home immediately. But it does mean that many Americans are with her, at least figuratively, at that dusty roadside in Crawford, expecting better answers.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Already Meeting with Her Last Year is not the Same as Meeting with Her Now
Q Is the President going to meet with the mother who lost a son in Iraq, that's been camped out in front of his ranch?
MR. DUFFY: The President has met with Ms. Sheehan last summer, and as we've said, the National Security Advisor, as well as the Deputy Chief of Staff met with her and other mothers for 45 minutes.
Q On North Korea, how disappointed is the President about the fact that they had to go into a three-week recess with no agreements made?
MR. DUFFY: We have made important progress in this round of talks. There is agreement among the five nations, a consensus that we need a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The break in the talks was prompted by the Chinese government, which gives the nations an opportunity to return to their capitals and talk about next steps. We anticipate a reconvening of the talks on August 29th,* so we believe there has been important progress and we're still optimistic that some agreement can be reached.
Q Why won't the President meet with her? I mean, she's camped outside -- I mean, is he at all worried that he's got this mother, someone who lost a kid in Iraq, she's camped out in front of the ranch, both -- I mean, from a PR side of things, but also the substantive -- listening to her -- I mean, why won't he meet with her?
MR. DUFFY: The President did meet with her in June of 2004; he's met with hundreds of families of the fallen. They are private meetings. And he was glad to meet with her at that time. We always mourn the loss of every life. And as I said, he's met with hundreds of families of the fallen.
Q Can we go back to the NTSB thing? Did they request that or is that something that we offered? Do you know how that came about?
MR. DUFFY: Let me see what I have on that.
Q Because that would indicate maybe that there is some suspicion there about that.
MR. DUFFY: I have what I have.
Q Trent, on Ms. Sheehan, what was the White House's message to her in the meeting with her over the weekend?
MR. DUFFY: As I said and reported, that Mr. Hagin and Mr. Hadley listened to her concerns.
Q Did they -- what was their response to her? I mean, did they welcome her concerns, did they --
MR. DUFFY: It was a private meeting. As I said on the wire call, she suggested and expressed on more than three occasions that she was very appreciative for them coming out.
Here's a little background on why she has every right to be pissed at the W, Rove and Co:
BuzzFlash: Your son Casey died April 4 in Iraq. Whom do you hold responsible for your loss?And more words to consider from Cindy:
Cindy Sheehan: George W. Bush.
BuzzFlash: Why?
Cindy Sheehan: I think he rushed into this war -–this invasion –- without having proper intelligence. And the reasons he went are so clearly wrong -–from his false claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction to there being no connection between Iraq and Saddam and Osama bin Laden. He diverted attention and troops and resources from Afghanistan and Al Qaeda to Iraq.
I don’t think Iraq has anything to do with the war on terror, except now terrorists are crossing the borders to go and kill innocent Iraqis and our troops. So he went almost unilaterally, with very little international support, to invade a country. They didn’t have a plan for the peace or for the occupation of Iraq.
My son was killed by Shiite insurgents. I believe George Bush created the insurgency by his failed policies and that’s why my son was killed.
I felt like I was in Bizarro World as I heard George speak about 9/11 five times and mention terrorism 31 times, even though these rationales for war have been disproved repeatedly. I think George thinks that since we believed him once about terrorism vis-à-vis Iraq, that we must therefore be gullible enough to believe him this time. I don't know, and I am not a professional pundit, but my theory is he might have mentioned 9/11 to manipulate our emotions and maybe even frighten us a little again?
The thing that struck me when I was watching that vacuous man giving his hollow speech was the fact that he could have always replaced the word "terrorists" with the phrase: "my moronic and callous foreign policies" For example, when he said that terrorists spread death and destruction on the streets of Baghdad and kill innocent people, he could have just as easily said: "My moronic and callous foreign policies spread death and destruction on the streets of Baghdad and kill innocent people." When he said that we need to stop terrorists from toppling governments in the region, he could have just as easily said: "We need to stop my moronic and callous foreign policies from toppling governments in the region." People have characterized the speech-lite in many ways, but if I had to pick a few words to describe it, I would say: "Hypocritical, manipulative, condescending, meaningless drivel."
No wonder the W's testicles have retracted and he doesn't want to meet with this woman. He hasn't had someone tell him he's an idiot to his face for low about 5 or 6 years, at least. Again, the Prez's actions, or inactions more accurately, speek volumes - he's a coward.
Cindy and the Gold Star Families for Peace
In case you were thinking that all folks in Texas love the W, Rove and Co. here's a comment from teh GSFP web location. You can't get onto Cindy's location since it has recieved too much traffic:
I live not far from George Bush's ranch in Crawford, and I am one among many Central Texans who believe the President got us into the war in Iraq under false pretenses, and that many young men, women and children have died unncessarily because of the President's terrible, arrogant mistakes. I support you in your efforts to protest this bloody war. My husband and I, however, are concerned that with a premature wholesale pullout of US troops, Iraq will fall into chaos and be plunged into a bloody civil war, allowing terrorist elements to gain a stronghold, and potentially destabilizing the whole middle east. There are no easy solutions to the mess President Bush and his hawks got us into, but I applaud you for taking a stand. Your voices need to be heard, and if there are more of you, and if the polls continue to show eroding support for Bush on the Iraq issue, he will no doubt be pressured into moving out of Iraq as quickly as possible, to try to save the White House for the Republicans' next election.
"I'm a Uniter, not a Divider"
But state schools chief O'Connell said intelligent design is "not an issue in California. It just hasn't come up."
When told about teachers avoiding the e-word, O'Connell said, "That's really regrettable."
"What (Bush) is doing is divisive, something to take people's attention away from all the other things going on with schools," he said.
"Why isn't he talking about funding issues, or class size or," O'Connell said, pausing, "Do you want me to go on?"
Can't Get Enough of Karl?
Here are the other top vote getters:
The Top Five Slogans from the contest were:
Loose Lips Deserve Pink Slips. Fire Karl Rove (Our winner!)
Karl Rove: The Voice of Treason
Treason is Not a Family Value
Support Homeland Security—Fire Karl Rove
Firing Rove: A REAL Patriot Act
Some other top slogans we thought were good include:
It's not Left or Right—it's WRONG. Fire Karl Rove
Bush Knew: Fire Him Too
Keep Your Promise—Fire Rove!
Fire Rove. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.
The American Spectator
All Images Copyright Windspike 2005
I call this one "The American Spectator." Took it yesterday at the Aloha Festival. Can anyone come up with a better caption?
Sunday, August 07, 2005
Contrast
Contrast this quote from the NYTimes with the excerpt that follows:
"These are my boys. I trained with them since January. Every one of them was like my sons, every single one. I was responsible for them. I still feel that responsibility." LARRY BOWMAN, gunnery sergeant, on recent deaths in the Third Battalion, 25th Marines.Doctorow Excerpt:
But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.
He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be.
They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life . . . they come to his desk as a political liability, which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq.
Interesting contrast, no?
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Hiroshima Survivors
Long about 1994 I went with a Japanese friend with some others on a Shinkansen whirlwind tour of
My friend has had a brain tumor. They cut her head open and successfully removed her lump but had to scuff up a little of her brain doing it. She has not been the same ever since. She was the mother of two beautiful daughters. Unfortunately, earlier this year, her three year old daughter died unexpectedly.
There is no way to connect these dots to the infestation of
On this day, the 60th anniversary of the atomic devastation that stopped the war, I reflect and feel remorse. I have been to
One Small, Simple, Quick Fix
In a more modern twist, in the same way that companies govern the votes of shareholders, use an online voting system that is safe and secure, unlike the Diebold machines used in Ohio. The whole issue there is to ensure access for those who can't afford computers and internet hook ups.
Slice:
THE Voting Rights Act, signed into law 40 years ago today, is often described as the highest achievement of the civil rights movement. It redeemed the soul of democracy by abolishing the legalized hypocrisy of poll taxes and literacy tests, and it freed minorities to elect candidates who better represent their values.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Time for some True Confessions
There are routine movies and others that blaze a trail. There are routine bad movies and others so horrendous that they redefine bad, that make us look up synonyms for agonizing and abysmal and then gnash our teeth because the language has not kept pace with the decline of film. There are even movies that are so blazingly rotten that they can redefine past experiences and make us look back on recent weak efforts like "Stealth" or "Fantastic Four" and think, "Ooh, that was fascinating."Okay, so fess up; who's going to see it anyway? I loved watching Bo and Luke Duke tear it up in the General Lee on the small screen. Can it be all that bad?
Well, then again, last time I ignored the advice of some critics that left the chair empty (regular chronicle readers understand), I ended up walking out on the movie - some Sarah Jessica Parker flick that was so horrendous it has thus far been the only movie I couldn't tollerate to the very end.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Presidential Vacations
If anyone who has sighted the W personally (as in not on television, but eye witness) in these past few days could comment on the whereabouts of our fair prez, please leave a comment with the location and circumstance.
Thank you.
Love and Marriage
From page 140:
Did you know that there are thirty-two names for love in one of the Eskimo languages? August said. "And we just have this one. We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving a Coke with peanuts. Isnt' that a shame we don't have more ways to say it?"From page 145:
"I decided against marrying altogether. There were enough restrictions in my life without someone expecting me to wait on him hand and foot. Not that I'm against marrying, Lilly. I'm just against how it's set up."From page 147:
"you know, some things don't matter that much, Lilly. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the over all scheme of life? But lifting a person's heart - now, that matters. The whole problem with people is -"I was at the NCLR benefit two years ago where Sharon Stone was the celebrity speaker and her words still hang with me. She said, paraprhasing, "I've been married (laughter, mainly due to her recent divorce). Marry (long pause), if you must."
"They don't konw what matters and what doesn't," I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.
"I was going to say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it..."
Is it really necessary to give this person air space in the Media?
So, is there a reason we actually want the mainstream press to be printing such warnings? Does it not simply feed into the hysteria that is the desire of such nut jobs? Al Jezeera may suggest that they are just doing their job, but I would suggest giving such wack jobs air space only feeds the flames. Why do it? Well, becuase it sells advertising and that's how the media make their cash. It's time for people who advertise in the mainstream media to indicated with their powerful advantage to either stop advertising in outlets that report such "news," or at least, the individual does not have to purchase the rag displaying it.
Incidentially, if such video clips can find its way to the Media outlets, why can't we find em, smoke em out, and squash em (to borrow a phrase from General Schwarzkopf)?
Slice:
Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri has warned the United States and Britain of more attacks, singling out London for the first time since suicide bombings on its transport system killed 52 people.Incidentially, do you believe these folks when they say there is a truce available? Should we take them up on it?
slice x:
"What you have seen in New York, Washington and Afghanistan, are only the initial losses and if you (United States) continue the same hostile policies you will see what will make you forget those horrors," he said in reference to the 11 September 2001 attacks.Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but we weren't in Afganistan nor Iraq when 9/11 hit. So, pardon me if I don't believe you about the truce.
Zawahri said the London bombs were a result of Blair's policies. He said bin Laden had offered a truce to Western countries asking them to pull out their armies from Iraq and Afghanistan in order to live in peace.
"To the people of the crusader coalition ... our blessed Shaikh Osama has offered you a truce so that you leave Muslim land. As he said, you will not dream of security until we live it as a reality in Palestine, and until all your infidel armies leave Prophet Mohammad's lands," he said.
"Our message to you is clear, strong, and final: There will be no salvation until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and resources, and end support for corrupt rulers," al-Zawahri added.
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Add 14 More to the "It's Worth it" Pile
Slice:
Insurgents blew up a U.S. assault vehicle in western Iraq Wednesday, killing 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter in the deadliest roadside bomb attack against American forces since the war began.
Intelligent Design
Slice:
President Bush said on Monday that schools should teach "intelligent design," a theory asserting that an intelligent agent helped shape the origins and history of the earth and life, in addition to evolution, the theory of life that enjoys overwhelming support from scientists.Mr. Bush, who spoke in an interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers, said students should learn about intelligent design to understand the debate over creation-of-life theories. His support could help the efforts of Christian conservatives who have pushed for public schools to teach the theory.
"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Mr. Bush told the reporters. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."
Intelligent-design theory holds that some biological systems are so complex that they could have arisen only through the action of an intelligent force -- ostensibly divine -- and not simply through Darwinian evolution.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
More GIs Dead in Iraq, but do we Care?
Slice:
Seven American Marines have been killed in fighting in Iraq's western Anbar province, the guerrilla heartland which keeps challenging U.S. and Iraqi troops despite repeated security crackdowns.
One of Iraq's most violent Islamic militant groups, Army of Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for the deaths, saying it had killed eight Marines.
"The lions of monotheism succeeded in killing eight American Marines, slaughtering some of them and shooting the rest after ambushing them in al Jazeera area, north of Haditha," it said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.
Stonewalling versus Partisan Delay
Exhibit A - Does this person get an answer?
Q So Senate confirmation really makes no difference in how he carries out his job?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think it's clear to everybody that he had the majority support of the United States Senate. But, unfortunately, a handful of Senate Democrats were intent on using partisan tactics to delay the nomination from receiving an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate.
Q How do you square that, Scott, with the opposition from folks like George Voinovich?
MR. McCLELLAN: Let me keep going on the first row, and then I'll come back to you, Carl.
Terry, you had something....
Exhibit B - Or, Does this person get an answer?
Q Well, following up on what you just said, you're basically saying that a handful of senators, Democrats, are holding you up. What do you think about Senator Ed Kennedy talking about Bolton misled Congress by denying he had interviewed in the State Department CIA investigation of faulty pre-war intelligence on Iraq?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think the State Department addressed that last week --
Q No, but you're saying that it's a delaying tactic.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm saying Senator Kennedy's views are well known.
Q No, but tell me -- no, but you made a statement; respond to this. You're saying that it's delaying tactics --
MR. McCLELLAN: It's already been responded to.
Q No, you're saying it's a delaying tactic. This is concrete information that Senator Kennedy is throwing out, and that's not delaying tactics, that's something that needs to be addressed.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I heard your question. It was addressed last week.
Go ahead, Bob.
Exhibit C- Another interesting question, but is it met with an answer?
Q Thank you. Would it be the President's preference, if he could, to overturn Roe versus Wade? And, also, does he think that embryonic stem cell research should be made illegal?MR. McCLELLAN: I think that -- two things. One, on the issue of abortion, the President has made it very clear that there are ways -- common sense, practical ways that we can work together to reduce the number of abortions in America. And he has worked to do that, if you look at what we have done, by placing a ban on partial birth abortion, by supporting efforts to increase adoption. The President is strongly committed to finding ways we can work together to reduce the number of abortions in America. He is someone who is pro-life.
Now, in terms of the question you bring up, I think this is trying to bring it up in the context of does the President have a litmus test for the Supreme Court -- no, he does not. And the President has made that very clear. He is not the one who has a litmus test. He believes that a judge ought to interpret our Constitution and our laws and not try to legislate from the bench. A judge is someone who ought to look at the facts and look at the law and look at our Constitution and apply the law. And that's what the President has consistently said.
In terms of -- what was the second part of your question?
Q The legality or illegality of embryonic stem cell research.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the President felt that taxpayer dollars should not be going to fund research where human life is created for the sole purpose of destroying it. Now, he believes strongly in advancing medical research, but we also must work to maintain the highest ethical standards. And that's why he came to the policy that he did. It doesn't place any prohibition on the private sector and research done in the private sector. He drew the line at taxpayer dollars because he is President of all the people.
And I think people do appreciate the need to move forward aggressively to advance science, but also look at those ethical considerations that really have far-reaching consequences into the future.
Exhibit D - And onto another topic, but again - any answer?
Q Scott, Major League Baseball has just suspended Rafael Palmeiro 10 games for steroid use. He's a friend of the President's, and the President has spoken out about steroids. What is his message to Palmeiro, and what does that do to his friendship with him?So, what do you think? Has the W, Rove and Co perfected the art of obfuscation and stonewall building, or is it partisan delay tactics that got us to where our government has led us today?
MR. McCLELLAN: This must be breaking news, first I've heard about it.
Q And does the President --
MR. McCLELLAN: So you're asking me his views. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it, or see the reports. But, obviously, that is an issue that the President took head on and called on Major League Baseball to address. They are taking steps to address it. It is a serious matter, and we appreciate the efforts by Major League Baseball and the representatives of the players to move forward and address it with stronger enforcement and stronger penalties.
Q What does that do to the President's friendship with a player like that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, I just heard about this.
Watching Paint Dry
I can't imagine that a person of Bolton's reputation will have much of an affect on making change happen, particularly given his cavalier and crass reputation. Diplomacy is not the mark of a person who is used to getting whatever they want, when ever they want it.
Koffi Annan has a point:
"I think it is all right for one ambassador to come and push, but an ambassador always has to remember that there are 190 others who will have to be convinced - or a vast majority of them - for action to take place."KOFI ANNAN, secretary general of the United Nations, on the appointment of John Bolton by President Bush.Here's another interesting Bolton related quote:
...this may be the first time a world superpower has used its top United Nations post as a spot for the remedial training of a troublesome government employee.