When I’m 64
Actually I am 64 . . . as of yesterday! Woohoo! And I don’t feel a bit different than when I was 63. April 28 was a wonderful day of fun and frivolity with Shonnie, calls and cards from loved ones, food from Salsas and an evening watching of one of my favorite movies of all time, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
Hear the Beatles sing my theme song for the coming year, “When I’m 64,” by clicking the play button below.
Only one year to Medicare! Woohoo!
Staying in Iraq means more meaningless loss
George W. Bush’s ill-fated decision to frighten this nation into an illegal, immoral, ill-conceived war against Iraq, a country that posed no real threat to us, will haunt him throughout history. Now most Americans believe the U.S. should never have undertaken this calamitous military misadventure and support bringing our troops home.
Let’s look at the current reality in Iraq. Thus far in April, an average of 25 American soldiers have died each week, a rate that could bring the total to more than 4,000 by year’s end. The unrelenting violence currently claims approximately 50 Iraqi lives daily, with total civilian deaths estimated at more than 60,000. Our allies in this conflict are drawing down their forces. The various factions in the Iraqi government continue to squabble rather than deal with pressing issues.
Aware that the American public no longer believes his original pretexts for war (WMDs, al-Qaida/Saddam connection, etc.), Bush and his apologists have fabricated an inventory of dubious justifications for “staying the course.”
We must give the “surge” an opportunity to work. One definition of insanity: Continuing to do the same thing over and over, each time expecting a different result.
A bloodbath will ensue if we leave. If the warring factions in Iraq are intent on more sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing, keeping our troops there only forestalls the inevitable.
Leaving will embolden the radical Islamists. Actually, they want us in Iraq. It’s great for al Qaeda recruiting efforts, and it accomplishes another of their goals—the slow bleed of American lives and money.
If we leave, they’ll follow us home. Does anyone remember any Viet Cong tagging along when we left Vietnam?
We must stay to stop the advance of radical Islam. Ah, yes, the old domino theory. Didn’t hold up with the commies, nor does it in this case.
American interests must be protected. If you’re talking about trading the lives of our youth for the continued flow of cheap oil, I say no dice. Anyway it’s high time we weaned ourselves from this greasy addiction.
Let’s express our gratitude to the men and women of our military who have served admirably. Let’s tell the Iraqis they now control of their own destiny. Then let’s declare victory and come home. We, the people, voted for this course of action in the 2006 elections, and it’s time the politicians in Washington carried out our will.
Watch Mike Gravel, former Democratic senator from Alaska and current presidential candidate express his views on getting out of Iraq by clicking on the play button below.
Note: This commentary was published in the Asheville Citizen-Times on April 27, 2007.
Bill Moyers Journal returns to PBS with “Buying the War”
Bill Moyers returns to PBS Wednesday, April 25 with a 90-minute documentary, “Buying the War,” that describes how the Bush Administration sold the Iraq War to the American public, and how the mainstream media actually supported the President’s deception. From the documentary’s web page:
How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported?
More from PBS:
Veteran journalist Bill Moyers returns to PBS in April with a weekly public affairs series entitled Bill Moyers Journal—the name of his first important series on public television 35 years ago. Moyers is re-inventing the broadcast for the 21st century, as viewers will see when they tune in for the premiere on Wednesday, April 25 at 9 p.m. for his documentary report: “Buying the War” about the role of the press in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The series will then air in its regular timeslot: Fridays at 9 p.m. (check local listings) on PBS.
[ . . . ]
According to Moyers: “A lot of Americans long for more than conventional wisdom, celebrity pundits, predictable opinions and safe analysis of the obvious. There’s a vacuum across the media spectrum, and several funders have stepped forward to say they would support us in our effort to fill it with independent journalism on the arts and letters, science, religion, business, foreign policy and the media.”
[ . . . ]
The premiere of Bill Moyers Journal, “Buying the War,” explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, including how the government’s claims about weapons of mass destruction and terrorist ties to Saddam Hussein were largely accepted at face value by the mainstream media and cheer-leaded by the “partisan press.” The marketing of the war has been much examined, but Bill Moyers Journal looks at how key elements of the media bought into the propaganda.
View an excerpt
Watch a short excerpt from this powerful documentary by clicking the play button below:
Update: I just ran across my NOW with Bill Moyers interview from the story they did about the Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour that was in Asheville on March 5, 2004.
MULKEY: I think that one of the benefits of getting together like this is to see that there are more of us than we think there are. Even if it is preaching to the choir. You know. That’s OK. There’s a time for that.
My 15 seconds of fame. Ah, such eloquence.
Rest in peace, Kurt Vonnegut
I never met Kurt Vonnegut. In fact, my only face-to-face encounter with a bestselling author was the time I asked Norman Mailer if he was still stabbing his wife. But that’s another story. Needless to say, I was an avid reader of Vonnegut’s novels in the 1970s and 1980s, starting with one of the best pro-peace novels ever written, Slaughterhouse Five. And more recently I’ve followed his online contributions to our national discourse. Below is an exerpt from a 1/27/03 interview at In These Times prior to the start of the war in Iraq.
I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”
Click here and here to read more about Vonnegut, the Mark Twain of our time, who passed from his mortal form on April 11 at the age of 84. Then click on the play button below to watch a video tribute to an extraordinary author who will truly be missed.
Sunday, April 15th, 2007Step It Up rally in Asheville draws 500
I just returned from the Step It Up 2007 rally in downtown Asheville, where more than 500 people gathered to hear Mayor Terry Bellamy, John Huie, Richard Fireman, Sandy Pfeiffer and others discuss the need to live more sustainably in order to scale back the deleterious human activities that are causing global warming.
Check out the Step It Up website, and read more about the local event in the current issue of Mountain Xpress. Then take a look at the video below that features environmentalist and author, Bill McKibben, the brains behind the Step It Up 2007 movement, talking about what we can do to protect our planet at the community level. By the way, what are you doing to ensure that our children and grandchildren inherit a habitable planet? Click here for actions you can take to reduce global warming.
Saturday, April 14th, 2007Human Rights Campaign National Coming Out Day Video
May the god of your choice bless you.
–Kinky Friedman
That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it.
–Hillel
Regardless of whether you pray to God, the Creator, the Universe, Yaweh, Allah, Earth Mother, Great Father, Krishna, Jehovah, Eru, the Big Kahuna, Alphonso or none of the above, the bottom line is that we are all children of god, all loved by her, all worthy in her eyes. A reminder of this below in a short video from the Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality.
A few quotations regarding prayer from the April issue of The Sun Magazine:
When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing–nothing.
–Saint Francis of Assisi
God answers all our prayes. Sometiimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is “You’ve got to be kidding.”
–Jimmy Carter
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
–Frederick Douglas
Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish.
–Source unknown
Saturday, April 7th, 2007LADY VOLS WIN 7TH NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP!
I can almost hear the strains of “Rocky Top” all the way across the mountains. The Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team beat Rutgers 59 to 46 last night to claim the 2007 Women’s NCAA basketball championship. This is the seventh
championship for the Lady Vols and Coach Pat Summitt, the first in nine years.
All-American Candace Parker scored 17 points, but this was a team victory, with all starters and players from the bench making significant contributions. And here’s the kicker: Only one player on the starting lineup (Sidney Spencer) graduates this year, and most of the talented subs are back too.
#8 in 2008?
Check out the recap of the game by clicking here.
Tennessee Women’s Final Four Appearances (17): 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007
Tennessee Women’s National Titles (7): 1987, 1989 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007
Lady Vols have balls!
Wednesday, April 4th, 2007Victory for the people: Woodfin power plant permit denied
Last night the Woodfin Zoning Board of Adjustment denied Progress Energy a permit to build a $72 million diesel-fired power plant in north Buncombe County. The Buncombe
County Board of Commissioners tried to get this deal done under the radar of the public, but a number of local activist groups, including People Allied for Real Conservancy, the Mountain Voices Alliance, the Canary Coalition and Save Our Slopes helped inform and arouse the local citizenry, and the ill-conceived plant will not be allowed to pollute the air of Western North Carolina.
Read more at Scrutiny Hooligans and from my muckraking friend Cecil Bothwell at the Mountain Xpress.
My message to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners
The more I learn about the proposed (though now defunct) Woodfin Power Plant, the more concerned I become about your lack of authentic leadership. In fact, it appears to me that some of your actions in approving this ill-conceived plant have been downright anti-democratic, similar to those of the Asheville City Council when they tried to shoe horn the Grove Park Inn condo development into the middle of downtown Asheville. We all know how that turned out for the Grove Park and a number of the Council Members who supported that project.
I can assure you that I will be taking action during the next election cycle to do what I can do to help elect a County Commission that has the best interests of the people of Buncombe County in mind.
Send your own e-mail to the entire County Commision by clicking here.
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
