MOTHERS OF THE MURDERED DEAD

Forty Dead Children!!!!!-- Jesus, it took forty dead kids for Israel to give pause in its evil self-serving self-delusive righteousness-- What are these desperate people hoping to accomplish??-- Olmert apologizes from the bottom of his heart acknowledging that Israel didn't see the civilians-- Didn't look for them, as a matter of fact-- Just looking for targets(buildings) to demolish-- Olmert the dilletante stupid enough to believe his Air Force could eliminate Hezbollah in three days now cynically justifies the civilian casualties because leaflets dropped by the Israeli bombers warned the Lebanese to leave their houses because Israel intended to pulverize their family homes into rubble-- Those that did leave were then bombed in free-fire fashion as they fled in their family cars on unpassably bombed out roads-- What a duplicitous schmuck--

........Obviously by now the world must see this retaliatory retribution aided and abetted by the frustrated Bush the bunkered Cheney the deluded Rumsfeld and the shrilly ineffectual Rice had been planned months beforehand waiting only for an opportunistic pretext-- Like Israel has never forayed across an international boundary and has never kidnapped Hezbollah soldiers-- Israel strode like a despised giant into Gaza and arrested numerous members of the elected Hamas government-- No outcry from Israeli Sycophant Krauthammer who ceased being a real friend to Israel a long time ago ('Friends don't let friends drive drunk') obviously thinks Hezbollah has no right to defend itself from repeated Israeli incursions into lebanon-- Be that as it may, does Israel and the U.S. hope these egregious war crimes against the Lebanese civilians will draw Syria into the fray acting to enable a U.S. strike on Iran??--

......Mr.Bush calls these atrocities an 'opportunity'-- For what??-- More tough talk and carnage??-- Please explain yourself, Mr. Bush, how do we get from one bomb forty dead kids to a terrorless 'new middle-east' the parameters of which you can't even begin to describe and why hasn't the mythical omnipotent Israeli army been able to achieve this arrogant fantasy in six-day fashion??-- Or is it an opportunity for more political and economic self-destruction??-- As the Israeli Generals and Politicians already fingering the blame on each other as the scapegoats of their arrogant collective failure one must ask if regime change in Israel is now the ironic fait accompli of such an ill-planned mis-adventure?-- Will a new Israeli prime minister have to prove, like Olmert, capable of bleeding more Arabs and their children??-- In Iraq regime change once a blithe exercise in American supremacy is now undeniably an abject excruciatingly ugly failure that you, Mr. Bush, deliberately refuse to see and that the American media collaboratively seek to hide from our people--

..........Now what is the complete free-fire dismemberment of Lebanon supposed to signify??-- A Revelation??-- A spasm of Rapture for the evangelical allies-- A portent of the newly risen and this time successful Neocondi dream of a remade Middle East that is not DOA??-- Security??-- The Hail Mary pass that rescues an insidiously stupid game plan on the final pang??-- Just Wait!!-- No, Let's Roll!!-- No, Just Wait!!!-- Mission Accomplished!!-- (well almost)-- 'We are going to impose our will on Iraq'-- 'There is no Insurgency'-- 'We have found the weapons of mass destruction'-- 'No, Just Wait-- 'We are all Neocons now'-- More Lies??--

.......A mother of the murdered dead asks 'Why is the world doing this to us?'-- What would you tell her??--What would Hillary tell her??-- 'That all Israeli sons are now our sons too.'??--(If the converse of this is true and all our daughters are the daughters of Israel you'd better fetch Chelsea a rifle)-- Whoring for campaign funding from the 'friends' of Israel would you tell the mother of the dead children of Qana that her slaughtered progeny were the Justified fodder of that 'new middle east'??-- Why aren't the Lebanese children your children too??-- Are they not part of your politically correct 'Village'??-- Is your quest for the Presidency worth the price of your moral compass??-- Is your career worth that??-- Further, is your ambition so blind and calculating actually good for Israel in the long run??-- If you knew that collective retribution/punishment was a war crime and that Israel sought to prosecute such action would you attempt to dissuade them/your friend??-- How many future guerillas does this hideous episode engender??-- If the War On Terror is so integral so important so all-encompassing why haven't the offspring of the elites joined the battle??-- Why haven't the cyber-supertoughs of the blogosphere bloodied their keyboards and joined the real war effort??-- How many times does a professional politician look up and pretend that he/she just doesn't see?? The answer, my friend, it ain't blowin' in the wind and America ain't All Israeli now--

MALICKI ISRAEL & THE PANGS OF BIRTH & DEATH

New Iraq prime minister Malicki's speech to congress survived the few Democratic senators who irate at Malicki's condemnation of 'Israeli aggression' attempted to abrogate the free speech plank in our constitution by in effect canceling his invitation--While their censorship gambit failed (Coach Hastert refused to block the speech) AIPAC contributions to their campaign treasure/war chests improved the countenance of their mini-defeat-- Hastert couldn't refuse the prime minister his invitation afterall Malicki's speech was sought by the Bush crew to enhance their political position for the upcoming fall midterm elections-- Malicki now a prime-minister with no visible means of political support (30 to 40 American advisors) in Iraq from anyone anywhere flails about earnestly trying to do the impossible was flown to the Congressional lecturn to paint the Iraq debacle in as glowingly positive terms as possible-- Bush met with Malicki to devise a new plan for Baghdad security since the old Malicki plan approved by Bush and sold by the administration as the next milestone that would secure the peace did nothing of the kind and failed miserably spiraling downward into an ever intensifying maelstrom of violence-- The new Bush/Malicki strategery as the media spin labeled it isn't really strategy-- It is simply the continued tweaking of tactics this way that way the other way that in no way can produce the silk purse of the initial ill-imagined sow's ear strategy to invade Iraq under-manned and under-armored to overthrow Saddam Hussein for possession of imaginary WMD's, control and co-opt the oilfields and belatedly as an add-on replicate American Democracy in a world terribly and most probably prohibitively suited to such fantasy-- 'Iraq......you know, Just Wait'--

..........Fewer leaders in the Arab states are as loudly critical of Hezbollah as they were a week ago-- The 'Arab Street' is solidly behind the group and Saudi leaders as well as Egyptian politicos seek to balance their positions for fear of stoking popular uprisings in their own country-- It's only in America Britain and Israel where Hezbollah is labeled a terrorist group most everywhere else in the middle east they are considered a political organization-- That Hezbollah weathered the initial Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon inflicting embarassingly high casualties on the vaunted Golani Brigades of the Israeli infantry is interpreted as victory by the general populations across the Arab world-- Israeli prime minister Olmert has been reported to have reacted in a pique of outright anger that the world media is portraying the citizenry of Lebanon to be the victims of Israeli agression-- In his meeting with his military advisors the room apparently erupted when Olmert clearly militarily naive declared the Israeli retaliation was going according to plan-- Many advisors took a decidely opposite stance-- The plan they averred was not working and would not succeed-- Hezbollah's ability to fire rockets into Israel is deemed factually undeterred if not actually improved and the ambush capability along with the quality of fearlessness with which they execute their fight/resistence to the Israeli ground assault has met with praise and respect from seasoned Israeli Combat officers and lower ranking combatants as well-- This is not the dancing tank blitzkriegs mid-sixties arab-military ineptitude all over again-- Gone-- History--

..........The templates of how lesser equipped combatants can assymetrically engage and defeat a huge WWII heavily armored mechanized industrial army are and have been readily available for anyone's study to gain highly effective open-source practical know-how-- Since everytime the word Vietnam is broached in discussions of Iraq and the two newest fronts in the Middle East cauldron it is usually met with sustained fire of denial, we can employ the template of how the big bad Russian Army failed in Afghanistan-- Actually they didn't 'fail' they were defeated-- While American intelligence/statesmen proclaimed the heady cold war victory initially they soon fell asleep behind the wheel-- With a reverberation felt throughout the world the success of the 'poor little guy' was actually the success of the brutally tough resilient persevering Mujahideen plied with state of the art guerilla weaponry from the U.S.-- Insurgent weaponry (in current and improvised generations which kills Americans in Iraq with continued relentless frequency) continues to proliferate profusely world wide -- Stinger missiles and laser guided tank killers dramatically and assymetrically equalize disproportionate armed-power on mountainous battlefields, in urban conclaves or any terrain of guerilla choosing-- CIA supplied the Afghani rebels with detonators for car bombs that gave and continue to provide the lesser funded insurgencies to any occupation nearly if not more pin point precision than their high flying opposition/counterpart air forces--

...........The most condemned yet under-respected traits these resistence fighters demonstrate repeatedly is the efficacy of their intent faith and moral (in their eye) objectives usually pejoratively dismissed as fanaticism-- (A reminder: given the choice between the much carelessly bantered 72 virgins reward and living to fight another day most of them choose continued breathing)-- However this faith allows them to withstand the demoralization intended by the vastly superior explosive firepower perpetrated by the Israelis-- The faith that gives someone strength and courage enough to pop up out of a spiderhole to engage a mega-Tank with a shoulder fired weapon is not something to be dismissed lightly-- Rarely if ever in a twenty blog sample did U.S. soldiers' post the God-willing type of faith in their mission the insurgents brandish almost defiantly on a daily or even on occasion an hourly basis-- Most soldier blogs are colored by dispirited ennui and acute boredom-- Regardless of genius sec-def Rumsfeld's dismissal, low morale indicates lack of faith and moral uncertainty...period!!!--

.........Saturday-- Israel has pulled it's vaunted infantry brigades out of the Hezbollah stronghold it bragged to the world a week ago it had under complete control-- Gone is the declaration to exterminate Hezbollah-- Gone is the 21 kilometer buffer zone north of the Israel border-- Gone is the 2 kilometer buffer zone of mid-week-- Gone is the occupation and control of Bint Jbail--Gone is the Israeli infantry's invincibility-- Gone is everything capable of being spun as Victory for Israel-- Hezbollah disarmed will no longer be conditional to a possible cease fire agreement according to Israeli officials-- Blair and Bush jumped in a desperate hurry Friday to mount the cease fire podiums-- Rice to Israel on Saturday as suddenly everyone wants cease fire-- Condi's obvious 'birth pangs of a New Middle East' seem almost unconsciously prophetic-- The birth will not resemble in any way its neocon fathers-- Not a Chance--

NEWT & ISRAEL'S GROUND INVASION??

To the fore comes the portly silverhaired Field Marshall Newt Gingrich agleam over Israel's latest if not 'final solution' for the Lebanese civilians who coddle the very Hezbollah the Israelis themselves with their vaunted state of the killer-art failed to vanquish in its brutal invasion of Lebanon twenty years prior-- Aroused from his mahogany foxhole where he has been holed up with the demons of his Iraqi misadventure by the Israeli decision to attack the civilian infrastructure of Lebanon to

• A.) Show the world they the Eternal Victim could kill civilians with the best of them: Al Quaeda, Sunni Insurgents, Shia Insurgents, The United States, Britain, Russia, Muslim Brotherhoods, Tamil Tigers, etc.
• B.) Bomb Lebanese civilians until Hezbolla returns their captured soldiers
• C.) Start World War Three replete with repetitious black and white newsreel footage of Newtie himself mounting the deadly lecturn to proclaim infamy and/or the latest Third Wave of something and/or to claim once more some bona-fide revolutionary status--
• D.) Destroy Lebanese rebuilt economy and tourism industry (popular among french travelers) in retribution for France's failure to collaborate with Shock & Awe and also for the Intifadas having ruined Israeli tourism--
• E.) Confront and then project their own self-hatred and force America to accept its own Inner-Israeli
• F.) To conflame the entire Middle-East fullfilling the fantasies of the neocon Final Days brigades
• G.) All of the above and everything else not listed

Newt positively beaming declares World War III is up and running-- The Israeli attacks have roused many other despondent neocons from the lethargies of their depressed hubris -- Thwarted by their Iraqi quagmire and the surrogate resistance to attacking Iran from the Retired Generals the necon criminal cabal may have tried to start WWIII with their proxy air-blitzkrieg by Israel in Lebanon-- Obviously hoping Iran and Syria will join the fray and induce full scale American participation Israel has brutally opened its pandora's box--Like the adrenalized Newtie op/ed pages across the nation have open space for any and all Israeli guest support and commentary-- These pandering editorials bespeak the same shock and awe type hubris so prevalent at the beginning of the Iraq conflict-- Victory in a Week-- Bring It On-- We'll be welcomed as liberators-- One nostalgia-stupified guest on the Israeli op/ed pages of the Wall Street Journal positively gushed how the aerial onslaught was bringing back the good old days and the glories of six-day wars instead of the neutering intifadas-- Letters and guest columns media-wide proclaim "We are all Israelis now"-- Oblique policy announcements from D.C. hint that 'It will require only a week to disarm Hezbollah'-- 'Condi will go to the Region next week'-- "Israel must be allowed to defend herself"-- No one stops to ask how many moderate Lebanese boys rendered homeless in the Israeli air assaults will take up the tools of terror as a result--

Wake Up!!-- Israel's first push into southern Lebanon was repelled by fierce and sophisticated resistance in difficult terrain(Israeli words) and at least one IDF Commander expressed embarassment-- Hezbollah has laser guided tank-killing weapons and once more for those who mock intent faith a real martyr's will to fight and in this case does not have to triumph outright only live to fight another day-- Instead of offering connecticut/texan type bravado and continuing an assault under-manned and under-armored like boy George and his sec-def genius Rumsfeld, Israel retracted and called up its reserves to mount a reinforced attack or so it says-- Israel already admits that the bombing campaign won't succeed in and of itself but here a smidgeon of doubt creeps into the undercurrents of their macho invasionary rhetoric-- A full scale ground attack while it sounds impressive harkens memories of the extremely costly twenty year occupation of Lebanon which actually gave Hezbollah its genesis as an outcome of all that heady pre-attack optimism in the early eighties-- It also echoes Vietnam in the military minds of Israeli high command and, of course, not to mention the glaring example of quagmired ally Gulliver presently in Iraq--Time though doesn't appear to be on the Israelis' side currently-- If they wait for a re-intensive bombing campaign to sufficiently de-fang Hezbollah the wait may exacerbate the fear-induced slowing of economy in places like Haifa adding the pressure of a deadline sense of urgency to the situation-- If bombing won't do or fails to do the job (exterminate Hezbollah)by Israeli definition the financial expense of the operation jet fuel and military ordinance and jet maintenance only ante up the stress of not meeting its objective-- Israel's economy before the air assault was in the doldrums-- WHO WILL PAY THE BILL??-- Bush prematurely may have already grabbed the tab quite deficient in the knowledge that interest payments through the American taxpayer go to China who makes its oil payment in the circle game of growth capital to none other than Shiite Iran-- 'Duh, They got a Big Country too?'-- Our soldiers continue to bleed while Iran doesn't seem to fire anything but rhetorical ghost guns--

So much for the brilliance in our goat's head strategery-- Israel in vowing to completely destroy Hezbollah may have failed to define an achievable objective, may also have drawn a deadline it won't be able to meet and may have crossed a line in the sand history intends to keep dissolving into more confusion-- Wars like the neocon Bushies should have learned (one hopes but remains confoundingly skeptical) are much easier to start than finish-- The aggressor must succeed as the outcome's victor and so far it appears Bush isn't (Maybe his job was just to get the ball rolling as his signal performance at the G8 belies much ongoing depth of interest--Just wait!!) and his buddy Olmert is in danger of following suit-- Acting in terrain on timelines of other's making make for many mistakes and the contagious possibility of unimagineably (on second thought very imagineably) serious disaster may accompany those mistakes--

Contemplate the possibility of complete U.S. retreat from the Middle East-- A remote proposition less so than a year ago William F. Buckley recently branded unthinkable but in so doing squarely broached and entertained the idea-- Unimagineably especially for those whose province of swagger and myopic hubris 'didn't have to execute such missions or bury the results'-- Unfortunately for the rest of the destabilized Middle East the democratic government of Lebanon announced that if Israel invaded southern Lebanon it would use it's obviously less than first class army to defend not Israel but Hezbollah as it continued to plead the so called world community for a cessation of the ruthless dismemberment of its country its people and its economy--This won't strike great fear into the Israeli military obviously but it does show others where its once moderate loyalties lie and may inspire a less than rose-colored pollyanna view of the one-week war prognostication--(The Bush administration has added another week of carte-blanche to the Israeli assault)-- If the moderates are willing to defend with their own blood Hezbollah what might the immoderate elements have in mind?-- In street demonstrations through the slums of Baghdad Moqtada Sadar's militia vowed to support Hezbollah--

If Bush and his neocon cabal are still drunk on the ambrosia of easy victory everywhere in their re-made Middle East they have probably refused to entertain less than easily optimum outcomes to their rosy scenario--Planning for success and/or failure having demonstrably proven to be their achille's heal, might an even slightly plausible scenario potentially devolve the Al Sistani Shia Nation's up to now patient hospitality toward truck convoys snaking out of Kuwait up through southern Iraq to re-supply and re-arm the American Occupation and what could become its fortuitously fortified but somewhat less secure and possibly very hungry Green Zone--Currently the convoy drivers are mostly Turks who should be, it must be surmised, not just fractionally uneasy about driving into the crosshairs of Shia snipers or their less precise but still quite lethal rpg's not to mention new 4gw weapon of choice nowadays the IED roadside bomb-- Close still counts in horshoes and grenades-- Will the Shiites of Iraq refuse to respond to a full scale ground offensive by Israel intent on 'exterminating' Shiite Hezbollah??-- The Shiites of Iran??-- A question ain't really a question if everybody knows the answer-- Over a proverbial barrel (of oil) a fact even a Newtie should know--

A PIG A SWEATER & AN OPEN MIKE

The open mike captured Our President's gauche incompetence disguised as fraternity house banter and also captured the supplicant toad Mr. Blair ineptly imploring the Organ Grinder to dispatch the Prime Minister of The Royal British Empire to the region preceding Condi Rice's impending failure to effectively stop the latest violent shambles of the Roadmap to Peace-- Were innocents not being ruthlessly dismembered in the most recent Middle East meat grinder the lackadaisical fratboy banter passing for World Leadership and Diplomacy in Action would be a most amusing and hysterical self-parody even Saturday Night Live at its best would be hard pressed to match but.... Barking at who is later surmised to be Chinese Premiere Hu as though he was frat-bro Flounder going home for spring break ('Hey, you've got a big country too.') our Commander in Chief( for the next two and a half years) seems rather pleased with himself for having digested not the roast pig he yearned for in the summit's run-up but a genuine authentic lesson in world geography which obviously rendered the G8 confab not a meaningless photo-op flop but a gleaming educational success for boy-wonder-- The Leader of the Free World when it was his turn to step into the breach of genuine world crisis attempts to pass the buck to Kofi Annan to call Syria and get their leader to 'make something happen.'-- The Affable Prepster banters with his British poodle about his gift of a sweater (Who said this Emperor has no clothes?) and about someone who Bush finds 'really sweet' to which Blair replies ' Oh, yeah. He is honey.'--Hmm!--The prequel to Brokeback Anthill: How The West Was Lost ?-- How a five day military excursion into the mouth of Islam's central oil heartlands fails to meet its beamingly liberated masses and instead opts for the success of a headlong lunge into on-the-cheap on-the-run nation-building, complete military standstill, economic ruin and the inchoate end of the just a short while ago nascentEmpire--'Just Wait,' the little emperor intones the recently resurrect Czar of the Newly Oil Rich Russian Empire Vlad Putin as if like a Hollywood cliffhanger just when Iraq's internecine descent into starkly violent madness and absolute darkness of civil war is all but a fait accompli all of the umpteen insurgent sectarian militias devouring each other and us suddenly share the idyllic light of the glorious neocon epiphany of a blithely re-made Middle East and all lay down their swords and bow to the supremely delusional Son of the Empire and his mirage--In Das Golden Agen plowshares like roasted pig and Diet Coke flew from their DVD's-- The Middle East will never be like Mayberry RFD but if Hollywood could make us believe it be so guess who gets to play the role of Opie?-- 'JUST WAIT,' YOU'LL SEE--

CANTWELL'S SLEAZE & WILSON'S SHAME

Mark Wilson's $8000/month sell-out payday from Maria Cantwell's sleazy re-election effort reeks with shame but clearly gives us a rare glimpse of how politics today is played-- Don't debate your opponent simply buy them off-- If a rich privileged incumbent who spent $10million to buy her senate seat in the first place wants to soil her opponent's reputation just hire him away from his former-marine family-man principles/credentials-- Eight grand a month must seem like a lobster feed for Wilson but for Cantwell it's just chicken-feed-- Small potatoes-- We get the government we deserve--

ISRAEL HIZBOLLAH & A MILLION ?????'S

Has Israel started the eventual war against Iran that Bush's neocriminals wanted but were too politically weak to initiate on their own??-- Why has Bush once again meekly and deafeningly caved in to Israel with a muted low-keyed response to the international calls for a truce/cease fire??-- Will Israel extend the foray into Lebanon by attacking Syria long a neocon target for a re-made re-regimed Middle East??-- Will Iran introduce troops/insurgents into Iraq to further complicate the quagmire there??-- If so, how many might they infiltrate--5,000 or maybe 10,000 or say a little more serious ante of 100,000??-- What would be enough to further complicate our seriously overstretched undermanned and under-armored troops already toiling full-plate in the lethal chaos and harm's way of bloody Iraq??-- Will Iran attack Israel touching off the contagion of the real Mother of All Battles??-- Did the near-recession state of Israel's economy bear on their decision to decimate the Lebanese economy's infrastructure and its connections to the rest of the world??-- Is opening two different battle fronts in the middle east a declaration of alliance to the Bush neocons and their 'final days' platform of permanent war??-- Will Israel's 'never-again!' mega-proportionate response to the reckless dare of Hizbollah set in motion the chain of events that will destroy the entire global economy??-- Is Israel intent on self-defense or self-destruction??-- Are they so blinded by their military hubris to believe peace may somehow be derived from such overkill or do they just want to blow up a lot of buildings and a lot of people??--Is this about newcomer Olmert's 'credibility'??-- Are those still unchastened neocons actively deluded enough to believe bombing Iran now will give them their desperate churchillianlike ('The world will thank us in the end') fantasy-victory thereby exonerating them for their ongoing economically ruinous failure in Iraq??-- Where is the oxymoronic U.S. leadership??-- Has anything they have told us about Iraq been born out by fact??-- Is the non-negotiable American way of life in danger of seriously diminishing returns due to a sharply higher spike in oil prices??-- One spike followed by another followed by another and so on... until what??-- How many of our graduates won't be attending college this fall as a result??-- How many new homeowners won't be able to make their payments this month??-- How much new credit-card debt can sustain possible $4/gallon of gasoline??-- How many non-performing loans and foreclosures can the banking system sustain??-- Does the mahogany foxholed D.C. think tanker ever contemplate such strategic consequences to real people in America??-- Are there any problems anywhere in the Middle-East that can't be solved by idealogical carpet bombing??-- Did the Sunni-Shia-Kurd tribal sectarian divide in anyway kowtow to 'Shock & Awe' ??-- Is Mr. Bush playing kiss-up to suddenly world-player Putin anything but a cheerleader on the sideline with an Israeli megaphone??-- Is he in Olmert's pocket the same way he belonged to Ariel Sharon??-- Is he incapable of leading??-- Where are his proposals??-- Does he remember the Liberty incident??-- Did Israel know of 9-11 in advance??-- Has Israel ever acted in our interest??-- Are they on the right side of History??-- Why do spineless Democrat pols blame Bush for Israel's decision to widen the war??-- Where are their plans??--Do we hear any of their proposals??-- Are we any closer now to democracy in the Middle-East??-- Have we been sold a dream of paradise in the eye of a real category five firestorm/hurricane??-- Is the rug being pulled out from under us??-- Are we or have we become powerless to control our destiny??-- Is our destiny so intertwined with Israel that if they go down we go down with them??--Are we already bankrupt??--Do any of these questions easily answer themselves??-- Were any of these questions easy to entertain or lightly asked??-- Why aren't they being asked elsewhere or are they??-- Are you well prepared for any of these eventualities??--

HONG TRAN & INCUMBENT SPOILS

Did Maria Cantwell gain ground on her Republican challenger in the upcoming fall elections by hiring/buying off one of her primary challengers the supposedly anti-war Mark Wilson? With his own campaign failing to find much traction Wilson ostensibly needed the money and so he adopted the rather feeble charade that he can lobby against the war 'from the inside' and ended his own run to work full-time for the incumbent Cantwell-- Wilson has a family to feed and if that's the primary reason for abandoning the fight it's difficult to find too much fault-- Hard Times require difficult decisions and besides his inability to magnetize the funds required to truly challenge Cantwell where it really counts, in the high-cost Media, insured pretty much from the get-go he would not get the chance to succeed-- It's another story if his defection from professed principle simply aimed for careering insider status one rung up the political ladder-- 'Say it ain't so, Joe' (Mark)--

Although Wilson will now probably want his anti-war supporters to adopt his employer's candidacy (his appeal may even include some camouflaged variation of the 'lesser of two evils' banality) another anti-Iraq War repeal-NAFTA pro-Health Care candidate Hong Tran at last count is still pressing her challenge of the rich and privileged incumbent who still hasn't found the courage to adopt something other than the less-than-upright 'stay-the-course' non-position of the republican president-- Importantly Tran's articulate message still carries an obviously 'American' resonance-- It mirrors the position of the majority of Americans and a super majority of registered democrat Americans (verified by a blevvy of polsters left and right) even if she hasn't garnered much name recognition-- Tran's Vietnamese heritage and compelling personal history doesn't count for much inside the elitist old white girls' exclusionary wing of the democrat party but her independent spirit and courage to soldier on in the face of the stacked decks and the cynical realities of today's politics is something to behold and admire and encourage-- She actually appears to walk her talk--She's not just about photo-ops--Remember when the Democrats were on the side of actual working people??-- Was it so long ago they have forgotten??--

Whether Cantwell's republican tactic of buying off her opponents succeeds in muting activist disappointment and pro-peace dissent that appeared to threaten her klutzy tin-eared campaign and allows her to retain her seat, it is more than apparent and perhaps more important that today's Democratic Party as most can now see is no longer the party of Roosevelt and is not the party on the side of history-- (Whether the Republican party is either is a question for another post--) A warning salvo suggests that millions of immigrant Mexican women(and men) with their eye on the prize of future citizenship and its inherent voting privileges are watching the way the democrats have treated and continue to disrespect Hong Tran-- WAKE UP!!!-- The mirage of calculating buzz-word blather and feigned stances or fighting principles??-- The choice is ours--Thanks, Hong Tran, for the inspiration--

BRING ON THE CLOWNS

With mid-term elections less than six months away both parties are stumbling toward the verge of political exhaustion-- Neither party nor the mainstream media-ocracy can summon the courage or political energy to deal forthrightly with the most pressing extant problems of the day-- Republicans briefly resurrect the ancient flag-burning ammendment in a highly orchestrated collusion with Democrats defeating it by the most narrow of margins-- A single vote like a nod is as good as a wink to dead horses but both parties feel their bases were energized by this cynical charade and a plethora of other recent mendacious non-binding resolutions concerning fictitious troop timetables -- The Ongoing Debacle in Iraq??-- The Internal Schisms in the Military and Intelligence Communities??-- Viable Energy Future??-- Housing Bubble??-- Climate Change??-- Gargantuan Debt??-- Federal Deficit Disorder??-- State Revenue Shortfalls??-- Bankrupt Pension-Funds Everywhere??-- Non-Health-Care??--Not these lion-hearted smear-mongering finger-in-the-wind fundraiser/incumbents--

Rumored to be dis-illusioned by the tentacled blatant scandal/corruption of the Abramoff et. al. follies, will the evangelicals turn out and vote lockstep with Rover's Homeboy non-issues and save the republican majority in both houses??-- Will disaffected peace seeking activists sufficiently punish the continued non-offensive Democratic acquiessence to the misbegotten neocon attempt at world hegemony by staying home or opting for independent third party types (No Senator Joe 'me first' Lieberman not included)??-- Does it matter??-- Will the election outcome induce either party to commit non-random acts of courage engaging the dangers our republic and its citizens face??-- Will the election outcome ward off the enervating political vacuum threatening to envelop D.C.??-- Notttttt likely!!--

MORE CANTWELL PUFFERY

The Seattle Times seems to have commandeered incumbent Maria Cantwell's re-election campaign for her-- This time a color picture of the embattled senator commiserating with war widows above a story that had the temerity to acknowledge that the Iraq War was not even discussed during the disengenuous photo/op meetup between the incumbent and the widows-- Nevermind that Cantwell's support for Bush's neocon misadventure in Iraq is directly responsible for thousands more joining the painful ranks of widowhood and thousands more having earned the difficult caretaker-for-life job of nursing those maimed and paralyzed-- Shouldn't Maria Cantwell be held accountable for her vote??-- Shouldn't she have to defend her 'A Year of Transition for Iraq' non-position on the War??-- Her primary opponent Hong Tran takes clear intelligent and principled stands on The Iraq War and other pertinent issues-- Her candidacy's web page details her compelling life story and her devotion to service among those not sporting access to privileged lifestyles Cantwell circles in -- You know, the kinds of less privileged among us on whose side the now elitist Democratic Party used to do battle-- We know where the impressive Tran stands even if she doesn't magnetize the elephantian volumes of campaign cash needed to buy off the media conglomerates in order to get her message out-- Even if Tran's run doesn't succeed she should be proud of her principled effort-- The old white girls' exclusionary wing of the Democratic Party has shamefully sold the traditional party and its constituency out and can't quite figure out why hispanic and black voters are jumping ship much less white men-- Houston, the party has a lemon on its hands even if Cantwell weakly manages to salvage her seat--Even the moderate mahogany foxholed think tanks of D.C. couldn't muster much help for the senator of the Party even Woody Guthrie would no longer recognize--'There's gonna be some Hard Travelin' up that political road this fall-- At least, candidate Tran would be a fighter--

BURNING QUESTION?

CAN YOU IGNORE THE IRAQ WAR OR DOES IT INTRUDE ON YOUR DAILY LIFE?--The question asked by the Seattle Post Intelligencer Op/Ed page invites the following comments--

Beyond the most obvious lethal disruption to the immediate lives of our soldiers and their families the ongoing Iraq War intrudes on most all of daily life in America even when the general public chooses to remain oblivious-- As official policy no footage of flag-draped caskets allowed on the evening news and thus the heroic supreme sacrifice of so many of our economically disadvantaged volunteer soldiers is not allowed to interfere with our main national ethos-- Shopping!!-- The shallow happyface mentality brooks no confrontation with the reality of war-- Like Memorial Day even the Fourth Of July has become first and foremost another long commercial weekend consumer blowout-- Just put the party on the tab of our children's future-- Like, hey, we got credit, man,....huh what's Independence, duuuuude??--

We cannot and must not face the fact that our once proud Independence has become an illusion-True, the hurricanes Katrina and Rita added serious impact but subtract persistently the million barrels per day of pre-war Iraqi oil from world oil production and it is not difficult to find the main initial impetus for escalating gasoline and heating oil prices now affecting nearly every aspect of our destabilized oil-based economy-- Retail sales are down and the effect of increasing gas prices have added such a cost to our daily commute that home foreclosure threatens many individuals if not by tangent the entire highly leveraged housing and banking industry-- Most of the media has aided and abetted the ignorance that fails to make such problematic connections to the decision to invade Iraq-- Many Americans even those highly educated can't find Iraq on a map much less explain the difference between Sunni, Shiite and Kurd and many more than those yearning for theme park reality to return simply wish the war would just go away --SHOULD we be allowed to ignore the war??-- Every so often Life forces us to sit down and feast on a banquet of consequences whether we like it or not-- This time it won't be any prettier than the last--