This Is How It’s Done

Whose streets? OUR STREETS!

From Ditch Mitch:

Kentucky may be a Red State now, but it’s turning Blue fast. When, folks in Kentucky decide to hold a war protest and then march to Senator Mitch McConnell’s house, it’s a good bet that times are a changing.
Hundreds of people gathered at Bellarmine University to protest the Iraq War and then 250 of them marched to Senator Mitch McConnell’s house to send Mitch a message.
Mitch had a few of his people there to counter the protest but they cut and ran when they saw they were out numbered, what a bunch of Wussies!!!!!!
Senator Mitch McConnell are ya listening????

One Tuesday evening, August 28th, 2007, the people of Kentucky took to the streets to let their U.S. Senator, Mich McConnell, know how they felt about the ongoing occupation of Iraq. Take a look at who was there.

These were not Dirty Fucking Hippies. These were patriotic American citizens from a southern red state who are appalled by the actions taken by their elected Republican Senator to rubber-stamp the policies of George W. Bush and prolong the Iraq occupation.

UPDATE #4:

Lt. Col. Horne now speaking. He was is a veteran of this Iraq War, who came back and spoke out against this folly. He is with Vote Vets and has bravely and forcefully spoken out against this war and Mitch McConnell. Though he lost against Yarmuth in the 2006 Dem primary, he has backed Yarmuth in the Congress and has continues his fight to respect and protect our troops by bringing them home.

Then he drove the point home, clearly stating what is so wrong with the direction that Bush have McConnell has (mis)lead this country:

“Americans do not start wars of aggression. Americans do not torture. We know who we are. Americans do not abandon and neglect their veterans, no more than they abandon their own children.”

“This isn’t a partisan issue, this is an American issue”

“President Bush and Mitch McConnell are responsible for this, and they must be held accountable”

“Mitch, can you here us, we are the people!”

[...]

UPDATE #6:

Oh. My. God.

There was an absolute army, an seemingly endless stretch of people marching from Frazier Hall to Mitch McConnell’s home. Simply mind blowing.

Mitch had corralled about 20 bikers to stand in front of his house and intimidate us, but they pissed their pants when they saw 300 chanting, sign carrying protesters.

This was one of the most amazing scenes I’ve ever witnessed. Just 15 yards from Mitch’s house 300 people “screaming support the troops end the war”, “Hey Mitch, come out and face the people”

This is how it will be done. We The People must do it. Organize a vigil, join a protest, take to the streets, and then get out and VOTE.

Good on ya Kentucky! This is how we will change our government.

All Hail, President for Life Bush

Unbelievable, or should I say, pretty much what I’ve been expecting for a long time now. From Digby:

I’ve been getting a lot of emails about this group Family Security Matters which boasts such right wing luminaries as Barbara Comstock, Monica Crowley, Frank Gaffney, Laura Ingraham and James Woolsey among others on its board of directors. It seems like they are just another of the dozens of wingnut welfare programs devoted to throwing good money after bad keeping conservative operatives gainfully employed.

The emails I’m getting say they are busily scrubbing articles all over the place. When you look at what they’ve left up you have to wonder what could possibly be so bad they have to scrub it.

I routinely podcast the Thom Hartmann Program on Air America on my commute to and from work (because AAR’s broadcast is so piss poor in New York that I can’t pick up their NY affiliate north of the George Washington Bridge) , and I heard Thom talking about this on one of his shows from last week. He was discussing an article that has been scrubbed from the Family Security Matters website suggested that the answer to the problems in the Middle Eaast would be for Bush to emulate Julius Ceasar’s campaign against the Gauls and basically annihilate all of the Iraqis and appoint himself President For Life because democracy just has so many pitfalls and drawbacks.

You are not going to believe this, but read on, here it is in all it’s surreal glory (preserved for posterity by The Guerilla News Network):

Exclusive: Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy
Philip Atkinson
Author: Philip Atkinson
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: August 3, 2007

While democratic government is better than dictatorships and theocracies, it has its pitfalls. FSM Contributing Editor Philip Atkinson describes some of the difficulties facing President Bush today.

Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy

By Philip Atkinson

President George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005 after being chosen by the majority of citizens in America to be president.

Yet in 2007 he is generally despised, with many citizens of Western civilization expressing contempt for his person and his policies, sentiments which now abound on the Internet. This rage at President Bush is an inevitable result of the system of government demanded by the people, which is Democracy.

The inadequacy of Democracy, rule by the majority, is undeniable – for it demands adopting ideas because they are popular, rather than because they are wise. This means that any man chosen to act as an agent of the people is placed in an invidious position: if he commits folly because it is popular, then he will be held responsible for the inevitable result. If he refuses to commit folly, then he will be detested by most citizens because he is frustrating their demands.

When faced with the possible threat that the Iraqis might be amassing terrible weapons that could be used to slay millions of citizens of Western Civilization, President Bush took the only action prudence demanded and the electorate allowed: he conquered Iraq with an army. This dangerous and expensive act did destroy the Iraqi regime, but left an American army without any clear purpose in a hostile country and subject to attack. If the Army merely returns to its home, then the threat it ended would simply return.

The wisest course would have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until they were all dead. Then there would be little risk or expense and no American army would be left exposed. But if he did this, his cowardly electorate would have instantly ended his term of office, if not his freedom or his life.

The simple truth that modern weapons now mean a nation must practice genocide or commit suicide. Israel provides the perfect example. If the Israelis do not raze Iran, the Iranians will fulfill their boast and wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Yet Israel is not popular, and so is denied permission to defend itself. In the same vein, President Bush cannot do what is necessary for the survival of Americans. He cannot use the nation’s powerful weapons. All he can do is try and discover a result that will be popular with Americans.

As there appears to be no sensible result of the invasion of Iraq that will be popular with his countrymen other than retreat, President Bush is reviled; he has become another victim of Democracy. By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government.

However, President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.

When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended. Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.

If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.

He could then follow Caesar’s example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.

President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.

#
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Philip Atkinson is the British born founder of ourcivilisation.com and author of A Study of Our Decline. He is a philosopher specializing in issues concerning the preservation of Western civilization. Mr. Atkinson receives mail at rpa@ourcivilisation.com.

What kind of fuckery is this, you ask? These people are really thinking along these lines, folks. This is no joke. Get ready.

What I’m Grateful For Today

This made me feel a little bit better this morning.

Yep, you’ve done some horrible things in your life. Embarrassing things. Stupid. Mean. Violent, even. Eaten dirt. Smacked a baby. Kicked a kitten. Stomped some flowers. Stole. Lied. Cheated. Beat up a tree. Spit instead of swallowed. Drank bad wine. Voted Republican. Shared a needle. Promised to call and then didn’t. You know, the usual.

But maybe some of these things now make you cringe and recoil and slump down a little lower in your chair when you think about them, because, well, maybe you’ve developed something resembling a conscience over the years, or maybe you’ve even gone so far as to consider the possibility of karma, of cosmic consequence, of the dire effects of wallowing for far too much of your life in all that goopy, stupid low vibration we sometimes call war or hate or religious dogma or the Olsen twins.

[...]

But then, something happens. In the midst of all this consciousness review and energy sifting, you pause. You take a karmic time-out. You lift your head from the hardscrabble tumult of your cosmic computations and look around, maybe read the papers and take in the recent headlines and suddenly it hits you like a dominatrix spanks her evangelical preacher in the hot fetish dungeon of cosmic irony: The stuff you’ve done? That horrible little army of things you think are so dire and awful and mean? Child’s play. Trifles. Piddly little nothingness of who-the-hell-cares, barely registering on the Richter scale of pain and injustice and true human misprision.

Because now perhaps you are reading up on the rise and fall and much-desirable end of this one particular man, this dank, sweaty, adipose embodiment of a sad political caricature, this shockingly powerful force of darkness and cruelty and pure, unfiltered iniquity known to the world as Karl Rove.

And somehow, looking at him, seeing the glistening, pallid face of true contempt as he finally, blessedly exits the main political stage, you feel better. Much, much better. In fact, somehow you feel like falling to your knees and offering sincere thanks, hot heaps of glorious gratitude to the gods of fate and time and love that you are not Karl Rove.

One of the ways that I manage my sanity on a day to day basis is to try and find something to be grateful for each and every day.

I guess this takes care of today.

Shine A Light

So a few people have been asking me about what I’ve been working on that has kept me so busy these past few weeks. Well, here’s a little taste, and yes, it really is that good.

Enjoy!

(…and now, maybe I can get back to blogging and flying)

Farewell Scooter (the good one)

One of my favorite broadcasters and radio personalities, not to mention one hell of a shortstop, Phil Rizzuto, died today.

Although I am a lifelong New Yorker, I was not always a Yankee Fan. As a kid I had passing flirtations with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the San Franscisco Giants (Willie Mays being my favorite player of the time), and also the New York Mets when they first appeared and when Willie played with them, but the Beloved Yankees were really always my team. And synonymous with the Yankees was the voice of Phil Rizzuto.

In grade school I idolized Mantle and Maris, of course, but paid little attention to Scooter as a player. He was there, but his career was on the wane by then and before long I began hearing him on the radio along with Mel Allen and Red Barber, but that was about the time that I began my flirtations with the National League and I didn’t really connect with Rizzuto until years later when I was in my mid twenties and was sharing a spacious Flatbush apartment with two batchelor roomates. The Yankees were being broadcast every night on WPIX Channel 11 and Rizzuto and Bill White were announcing the games, and during those years in the 1970′s Phil Rizzuto became a part of my life experience. I loved his style, his love of all things New York, and his love of the Beloveds. He was one of a kind. Listening to him call a game brought the action to my mind’s eye and his love of the game of baseball came right through the airwaves and out of the speakers of my TVs and radios. The Scooter gave me many hours of joy over many, many years, and I will rememember him fondly for the rest of my life. Holy Cow indeed.

(There is a nice tribute to Scooter on the YES website here and here. As for the Meatloaf song. I’ve always been kind of embarrassed to be caught listening to it, but it’s also been a guilty pleasure. One of the things that got me to pay attention to this song in the first place was that The Scooter was featured in it.)

UPDATE: I just came across this, “Oh Holy Cow, The selected verse of Phil Rizzuto”.

Reversal of Opinion
And he hits one in the hole
They’re gonna have to hurry.
THEY’LL NEVER GET HIM!
They got him.
How do you like that.
Holy cow.
I changed my mind before he got there.
So that doesn’t count as an error.
July 10, 1992. Seattle at New York. Dave Fleming pitching to Andy Stankiewicz.
First inning, no outs, bases empty. Mariners lead 1-0.

Lovely.

Who Would Jesus Bomb?

Happy Hiroshima Day everyone.

(h/t Peace Takes Courage)

Rovemort Explains Obstructionism

I’ve been up to my earlobes mixing a Rolling Stones movie and have had little time for blogging recently, but I had to share this.

I’ll be coming up for air at the end of August and until then I will hopefully find time to post from time to time.

Feel free to chat amongst yourselves.