The Big Lie

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was on the tube yesterday spreading fear that Obama Administration policies leave us unprotected. Sounds like the recent presidential campaign again, doesn't it?

"There is no prospect" that Iraq will return to producing weapons of mass destruction or supporting terrorists, Cheney asserted, "as long as it's a democratically governed country, as long as they have got the security forces they do now and a relationship with the United States." This from yesterday’s State of the Union on CNN.

What former Vice President Cheney, who hid from the press and voters for the entire eight years he was in office, didn’t mention, however, is that Iraq was NOT a haven for terrorists until the Bush-Cheney administration invaded, and NO weapons of mass destruction were found. He also failed to mention the fact that Saddam Hussein had turned into a pathetic despot who spent his time writing romance novels.

And Cheney failed to mention the millions he received from Halliburton stock, which had a year to date high - right before Cheney left office, believe it or not - of $55.38. Now that the stock market is crashed, Halliburton is selling at just under $16. No wonder he’s lashing out.

Cheney, like Rush Limbaugh, is the master of the Big Lie. He said, according to the AP, that all the Republican administrations goals in Iraq were accomplished and that they kept the country safe from another terrorist attack: "I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles," he said.

"President Obama campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack."

Here’s what Cheney also failed to mention: Osama Bin Laden’s goal was to bring the United States to its knees financially. Osama Bin Laden has accomplished that goal. He doesn’t need further terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center because the billions and billions of dollars that the Bush administration spent waging war on Iraq accomplished that without further attacks. The Bush administration gave away suitcases full of American cash out to Iraqis without any kind of oversight.

Lack of oversight. Does that ring a bell? Oh, yeah. The sub prime lending crisis.

Cheney lies to us outright when he says [Bush Administration War Policy] “was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles.” First, Cheney in effect created a fourth branch of government with his vice presidency. He said his office is not a part of the executive branch of US Government, and then flouted the Constitution in the name of executive privilege.

Second, Cheney decided the executive branch could do whatever it wanted and created, as George W. Bush’s puppet master, executive orders and presidential signing statements that put laws into effect while at the same time nullifying them. For example, according to the Boston Globe (Jan. 4, 2006), when Bush signed “the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.

“After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a 'signing statement' -- an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law -- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists said.”

Constitutional? I don’t think so, but I’m not an expert. However, “Elisa Massimino, Washington director for Human Rights Watch, called Bush's signing statement an 'in-your-face affront’ to both McCain and to Congress.

''’The basic civics lesson that there are three co-equal branches of government that provide checks and balances on each other is being fundamentally rejected by this executive branch,’ she said.

“'Congress is trying to flex its muscle to provide those checks [on detainee abuse], and it's being told through the signing statement that it's impotent. It's quite a radical view.’"

CNN is doing a good job of creating conflict, which the network needs to promote its television shows.

I wonder, however, at the wisdom of having a failed politician (in the very worst sense of the word) spout hatred when we already have so many solutions to find.

As always, feel free to comment below.

Happy Independence Day

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Happy Fourth of July!
Our citizens have fought for freedom for well over two hundred years. I pray we soon have our Constitution returned to us and that these freedoms are not gone forever:

Equal justice under the law without partisan politics making some pigs more equal than others;

Three branches of government instead of a fourth vice presidential office which is neither executive nor legislative, but which operates in an opaque hidey-hole;

A president who transparently vetoes laws he thinks (Hell, I’d be satisfied at this point with one who could think!) are against the best interests of the nation instead of attaching statements that declare he’d do what he damn well pleases;

Presidents who are elected fairly instead of appointed by the Supreme Court or win through Chicago style politics – vote early and often, let the dead vote, pay for votes;

Freedom of thought, especially in our mail, conversation – including electronic conversations – without reprisal;

Freedom of speech and dissent - without being branded a traitor;

Freedom from intrusion into our bedrooms and doctors’ offices;

Freedom to have the truth told to us rather than outright lies from our highest elected officials on down.

Freedom from fluff in the news media when important events occur (Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan are NOT more important than national security).

I applaud and honor the Service Men and Women who make enormous sacrifices to keep our nation safe and free now and in the past (including my father and my father-in-law! Let light perpetual shine upon them). God bless them, us and this whole United States.

Next week: Why don't we value children in America?

Treason in America

Please feel free to click on comments beneath each entry and share your thoughts.

Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been convicted of perjury for lying to a grand jury over a period of time about the revealing of Valerie Plame’s name as a CIA operative.

Vice President Cheney is “saddened” by the verdict, and tells us what a great guy Scooter is. Where are Cheney’s standards? Is perjury no longer against the law, Mr. Vice President?

Pressure is on President Bush to pardon the poor man. A White House spokesman reports that the president will not pardon poor Scooter “at this time,” leaving the option open for later, perhaps when the president's approval ratings rise above twenty-five percent. In the meanwhile, Scooter is asking to remain at large while he appeals his sentence of a little over two years - and Cheney declares there should be a retrial.

Both scandal-ridden World Bank boss Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld, fired as Bush’s Secretary of Defense after his strategy failed in Iraq, wrote letters asking for leniency. What chutzpah! That’s like Medea (who killed her children to spite Jason) applying to be a foster parent or Jeffrey Dahmer battling against Hannibal Lector on Top Chef. On the other hand, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld both became fall guys for the administration and they might think that lends their voices credibility.

And after all, poor Scooter has suffered public humiliation. Scooter gave his life to the Republican Party and became the current fall guy for the administration’s utter contempt for the Constitution. Isn’t that enough?

Outing a CIA agent is treason, by law. When did treason become a misdemeanor? And why did we Americans permit the current Gang In Power (GOP? - oops, wrong vowel) to form a Good Old Pols (there it is, GOP) group that acts with reckless disregard for the country – as long as their own interests thrive?

In the last election in Illinois fewer than 20 % of registered voters went to the polls. Translated to eligible voters, the percentage drops dramatically. Why the apathy? Some people don’t register to vote so they won’t be called for jury duty, which could well cause financial hardship. In Cook County, jurors can be assigned to courts two hours from their homes and be taken from their work. If they work by the hour and don’t get paid if they don’t show up, the $17.20 per diem stipend can send them into a life on the streets.

Others don’t vote because they despair that the political parties act only to further the interests of the parties, not the country as a whole. And they’re partly right. After the promises not to attach pork barrel amendments to important legislation, the Democrats continue the path of their opponents. Who wouldn’t despair? When party agendas become so important, the country suffers. Look around.
But the 80+% who chose not to vote in the last election have abrogated their responsibility to the few, the ones who feel strongly about government, too often the ones who believe the Bill of Rights is outdated, that freedom of speech should be limited, that the separation of church and state should be abolished and a theocracy formed (it works well in Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t it?), and that the Second Amendment, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” means that every citizen, regardless of competence, should be forced to carry.

I voted in the last election, and I hasten to add that most of my fellow citizens who also voted still believe in the Bill of Rights, despite the Patriot Act’s attempts to crush it.

The problem with the current administration is that they talk long and loud about a strong America, free from attack. Yet at the same time they preach hate and fear and form policies that create new attackers. How many more times can the president cite September 11, 2001, as the reason for whatever off-the-cuff policy he proposes this time?

If we really believe in a strong America, we must demand that the people who revealed Valerie Plame’s CIA connection be tried for treason. If that’s Cheney, tough. President Clinton was impeached for lying about a blow job, but no one seems to think Bush’s or Cheney’s or any of their advisors’ behavior is worth looking into.

We must take America back. We must begin once again to uphold standards of law and the Constitution. If we fail to do so, a free United States of America could cease to exist. And we may well find ourselves rebelling against another King George.

Comfort Rituals

Every child is born with congenital traits: the urge to suckle, a fear of falling, a reflexive smile, in addition to many others. I think another, often-missed trait in humans is a desperate need for ritual. Ritual is comforting.

We practice rituals in every aspect of our lives. Some rituals are based on superstition, like actors who wear their lucky cuff links whenever they appear on stage or people who perform bedtime rituals so they can sleep. Most obvious rituals appear in religion, of course. Weddings, whether they involve jumping over a broom or reciting elaborate vows are a form of joyous and comforting ritual.

Death, even from ancient times, has involved ritual. Some cultures built a pyre on a ship and sent the flaming vessel off into the ocean. Others chose to mummify their dead so they would be “whole” when they greeted the gods in their afterlives. Today, in what some have called a post-Christian society, we still use rituals of comfort in times of death.

When Princess Diana died several years ago, many Brits expressed their grief by leaving offerings of flowers, notes, stuffed animals, and other gifts outside Buckingham Palace. Eventually the offerings covered a huge space almost three feet deep.

When my son died in an accident, I met a woman who told me she wished she had known about his death because she would have left flowers at the site. In America today when a child is killed in whatever unthinkable manner, friends write notes and post them on his or her locker at school, leave flowers and other offerings at the site of the death, light candles in front of his or her home.

Not to negate these good wishes, but this ritual puts people at arm’s length from the event. Perhaps parents are comforted by the ritual of candles, notes, and flowers. At some point, however, most shrines must give way to continuing life. My son died a thousand miles from our home. If anyone put flowers out for him, I did not know, would not have known, was not comforted. The outpouring of love from friends and family comforted me. And I found enormous comfort in religious ritual.

In contemporary America, despite constant religious posing, the Bush administration seems to me to encourage the creation of random rituals – and abandon well-established, comforting ones. We are denied any public opportunity to mourn those who give their lives for our country. They remain numbers, except to the people who knew them. One hundred four American soldiers were killed last month in Iraq. Unless they were from your hometown, unless you are related to them, unless you were their friends, unless you attended their funerals, they remain statistics, seldom with a name attached.

On occasion, (probably on Memorial Day at the end of this month) newspapers and television stations will print the names and show the faces of those who have died in the past year or since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq. Doonesbury may list their names. The patriotic troops who lost their lives become real at that point. Real but ephemeral. And without significant ritual because for too many people Memorial Day is merely a long weekend holiday filled with end-of-spring sales, a different kind of comfort ritual.

During the Viet Nam conflict television news programs showed the flag-draped coffins of the military dead being returned to American soil. The Bush administration decided that such images are a public relations nightmare. The pictures would diminish support for the invasion – and the president. Consequently, the administration has forbidden the airing or printing of such pictures.

For most of us, the conflict in Iraq is real – but un-real. We can watch the news every evening and see bombings, attacks, troops. We can see visiting dignitaries march through Baghdad in their flack jackets. We can almost taste the chaos and fear of the Iraqis. And watching the news is a ritual; indeed, a comforting ritual in itself for some.

What we don’t see, however, is those who have given their lives in this conflict. We don’t see the overwhelming dignity or the comforting ritual surrounding the return of a deceased soldier. We don’t see a coffin covered in its pall of American Flag. We don’t see an honor guard unloading it from an airplane. We are denied this important ritual. We are denied this comfort.