entitlement

Rothschild: “People want leadership, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.”

President Shepherd: “Lewis, we've had presidents who were beloved, who couldn't find a coherent sentence with two hands and a flashlight. People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty. They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.”

our society is a mess.

recognizing this fact is easy. changing it is hard. complaining is not enough. effecting change takes people with vision, intelligence, courage.

more importantly, it takes the ability to deliver truth to a public conditioned not to hear it. today’s u.s. public refuses to hear the truth. they want government without taxes. they want war without death. they want an end to poverty and disease and suffering, but without being bothered with the messy details.

and they want politicians who will promise these things regardless of the fact that they can’t be delivered. since the reagan era we've steered hard toward social civil war—economically, philosophically and spiritually. where once we aspired to achievement, now we aspire to accumulation. where once we demonstrated for civil rights, now we reallocate to the very wealthy.

the wealthiest in our society are particularly problematic. of the well-to-do people i know, most would pay zero taxes for any purpose whatsoever, if they could arrange it. they are completely focused on sheltering every last dollar for themsleves; they have no interest in, say, housing the homeless or pre-emptively shoring up the levees in new orleans.

they want the benefits of living in a country that makes their success possible, but none of the responsibility for maintaining it. this attitude of entitlement starts at the top: the president of these “united” states says every day, in effect, that no one is responsible for sustaining this country.

President Bush didn't say the other night how he would pay for his promise to rebuild the Gulf Coast states. Allow us to explain: Every penny of aid approved by Congress so far and all subsequent aid - perhaps as much as $200 billion - will be borrowed, with most of it likely to come from Asian central banks and other foreign investors. That means additional interest of about $10 billion a year indefinitely. The bill will hit current and future taxpayers in the form of higher taxes or cuts in government programs, or both.

we have gaping holes in the infrastructure of our society. government has the duty and the responsibility to fix those holes for the greater good. bush and his ilk, however, don’t share this view of government’s role. in fact, they don’t believe in government at all. government, they insist, is corrupt and incompetent. we must deprive it of the money needed to run it. no wonder, then, that the government we get is corrupt, incompetent and bankrupt.

it’s odd that people so invested in acquiring and holding power are so intent on destroying the legitimate expression of that power. but therein lies the fundamental illogic of this administration. they cut taxes, but spend more prolifically than any administration in history. they want less government, but have overseen an unprecedented expansion of bureaucracy. they speak of spreading american-style democracy while undermining democracy at home.

meanwhile the voters charged with keeping the government in check just yawn and go back to watching survivor and desperate housewives.

our society is in trouble. and there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that we can save ourselves from it.

eulogy for a presidency

five years of sanctioned vandalism summed up here:

"Bush has a very well defined vision of what government should do and how it should do it," said Michael Franc, a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization consulted by the White House. "This is a moment to teach or explain to the American people how his values apply to this catastrophic situation."

there will never be a more damning indictment of this administration's humiliating, abject failure.

"we've got plenty of troops..."

during today's spin through the wreckage of new orleans, george bush said it was "preposterous" to claim that the Iraq war had drained military resources, leaving too few troops to help out with the hurricane.

"We've got plenty of troops to do both," Bush said during a tour of the areas of the city ravaged by the hurricane.

where did he hear that, do you suppose? since before the start of the iraq boondoggle, military experts have been saying, "not enough troops to do the job." national guard troops have been forced into far longer duty tours than they signed up for; regular armed service personnel have done multiple tours without relief.

military recruiting is in crisis mode...and now the federal government has drop-kicked katrina relief.

but we have plenty of troops for any and every mission, huh, george? preposterous is right.

compassionate, aren't they?

richard baker, nice guy.

our gop conservatives are real humanitarians.

as their response to hurricane katrina shows, they never met a victim they wouldn't kick.

take rick santorum. asked about survivors still in new orleans, santorum said,

"...you have people who don't heed warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving."

so, those who survived the storm should be punished. apparently those who died have been punished enough.

and then there's louisiana rep. richard baker (R), quoted in the wall street journal as telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

and house speaker dennis hastert said straight up that parts of new orleans should be bulldozed.

"It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level," Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.

"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican concluded.

after the fact, of course, all three issued "clarifications" to their previous statements. baker disdainfully said,

"What I remember expressing, in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that 'We have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it.' Obviously I have never expressed anything but the deepest concern about the suffering that this terrible catastrophe has caused for so many in our state."

oh, obviously.

santorum's backtrack amounted to, "i didn't mean the people who were unable to leave." hastert: "did i say bulldoze? i meant plant roses."

it's not enough that these three and their legion of like-minded compassionate conservatives issue statements from afar. to demonstrate their sincerity and good faith, it is entirely appropriate that they travel to new orleans, hold a town hall at the morial convention center, and explain to the displaced residents of the city exactly what they meant.

actually, he doesn't understand...

george bush recently took a stroll around poplarville, mississippi.

and he understands that.

"I understand. I understand the damage. I understand the devastation. I understand the destruction. I understand how long it's going to take. And we're with you. That's what I want you to know," he told the residents of Poplarville, where some trees fell on carports.

in a related note,the war president also visited with a couple folks in biloxi...

cnn video footage recorded this exchange:

[Bush strides up to two African American women, who are sisters. Hovering nearby is a white guy wearing shades and shorts.

With the cameras rolling, Bush hugs the two women, one of whom starts sobbing.]

Bush to women: "There's a Salvation Army center that I want to, that I'll tell you where it is, and they'll get you some help. I'm sorry . . . They'll help you. . . . "

Woman 1: "I came here looking for clothes. . . . "

Bush: "They'll get you some clothes, at the Salvation Army center. . . . "

Woman 1: "We don't have anything. . . . "

Bush: "I understand. . . . Do you know where the center is, that I'm talking to you about?"

Guy with shades: "There's no center there, sir, it's a truck."

Bush: "There's trucks?"

Guy: "There's a school, a school about two miles away. . . . "

Bush: "But isn't there a Salvation center down there?"

Guy: "No that's wiped out. . . . "

Bush: "A temporary center?"

Guy: "No sir they've got a truck there, for food."

Bush: "That's what I'm saying, for food and water."

Bush then turns to the woman who's been saying how she needs clothes and tells her: "You need food and water."

we are four

"we are four."

we are an unbreakable whole, united for life. we are a family.

i wish i could take credit for this profound truth, but it belongs to a friend who is setting a very good example.

our family is four, as well. and as the patriarch, one rung below the matriarch, i feel a certain responsibility to build and maintain the fabric of the family. but until recently this concept had never felt so immediate. so urgent.

i always understood the importance of this duty, but i didn't know how to put it into practice. how to make it real and meaningful. my own upbringing was lacking in this regard; to this day my parents and i are distant. i don't speak to my only brother.

this circumstance is sad and completely avoidable. it's history i don't intend to repeat.

my children and i recently watched a particularly apt installment of lelo & stitch. while the medium was transitory, the message was not:

Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten.

my son picked up on this phrase, and has it memorized. i'm encouraging him to remember it.

"preston, what does family mean?" i ask him.
"family means nobody gets left behind. or forgotten."

we are an unbreakable whole, united for life. we are a family.

the thoughts are profound. instilling them in my family is imperative.

liberation

joan died thursday, august 18, in the evening.

she spared herself months of debilitating pain by, it seems, self-medicating. the symptoms of an overdose were at first mistaken for a stroke, but eventually the family and staff put two and two together.

when it came to serious matters, joan was no-nonsense. she became a single-minded stoic, and it behooved no one to get in the way. same with the cancer. she was not about to take it lying down.

her husband and children flew in from all parts of the country to be with her at the end. the family didn't always get along, and this gathering was no different. emotions ran high, and disagreements flared. joan, in her silence, ended every discussion. she would have things her way, and that was that.

joan will be cremated, and the family will gather again to spread her ashes in the arizona desert. probably near camelback mountain, one of her favorite hiking spots. maybe it'll be in the fall, her favorite season, sometime in the evening.

it would be nice to think that she's still there, somewhere, breathing easy, enjoying the warmth of the sun, limbering up her metaphysical being for a long, peaceful hike through eternity.

she would like that...

mother and country

it didn't take long for the neoclowns to start trashing cindy sheehan.

following her son's death in iraq, sheehan took her grief and protest of the war right to george bush's doorstep. she set up a camp near crawford texas, alongside the road bush drives to and from his much-used vacation ranch.

there she has created a rising storm of anti-war activity, in a manner impossible for bush to ignore.

sheehan has said that the president is isolated from opposing points of view. people are restricted to free speech zones a mile away, and he never hears anything but people who agree with him.

she's right. but with this persistent, now very visible protest, sheehan has changed that dynamic.

and it has the neoclowns frothing at the mouth.

"Despite what the headlines say, Sheehan, 48, is more antiwar protester than grieving mother," said a column Friday in the online version of the American Spectator. "She is co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization that seeks to impeach George W. Bush and apparently to convince the U.S. government to surrender to Muslim terrorists."

got that? sheehan is with the terrorists. sounds familiar, doesn't it?

The photo Cindy Sheehan did not want the world to see: President Bush plants a consoling kiss on the cheek of grieving antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan last year at Fort Lewis, Washington.

i'm not sure of the point of that one. i mean, would you want george bush putting his mouth on you?

the takeaway here, the message bush and the neoclowns would deliver is this: it's not enough that sheehan's son was sacrificed needlessly by a corrupt administration--she also needs to like it.

joan

joan is dying.

this week she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, from which virtually no one recovers.

joan is my wife's mother, and she's too healthy, vital and vibrant to suffer the death that's in store. the online cancer resource sites spend very little time talking about survivability or recovery. they jump immediately to "palliative care", which essentially is about comforting the dying.

joan is in her 70s. for some people that's old; for her it's not even an inconvenience. she backpacks yosemite, she camps, she skies, she travels. she sets the kind of example anyone would be fortunate to follow.

for her to die this way, in fact to think of her dying at all, is outrageous.

my wife is beside herself. i can't talk about it easily. i can barely write about it. the children know granny joan is sick, but of course they don't know anything. they couldn't process it if they did.

we can't seem to process it either.

intelligence, bush-style

my wife and i work in clinical research. drug testing, if you will. our companies help invent and market pharmaceuticals and medical devices that (in theory) help prolong life and improve its quality.

in this business it is expected and required that manufacturers prove, scientifically, that such products perform as intended. that they help sick people feel better, if not actually get better. if companies can't prove efficacy, scientifically, their products tend not to leave the laboratory.

george bush is philosophically opposed to this dynamic. by the logic of the president of the united states, it would be perfectly reasonable to market drugs and medical devices that haven't passed muster, science-wise.

similarly, bush isn't all that interested in the "science" of biology. he says "intelligent design" is responsible for all things, and should be taught in science class alongside that fraud "evolution."

The nature of the "evidence" for the theory of evolution is so overwhelming, and so powerful, that it informs all of modern biology. To pretend that the existence of evolution is somehow still an open question, or that it is one of several equally valid theories, is to misunderstand the intellectual and scientific history of the past century.

To give Mr. Bush the benefit of the doubt, he may have been catering to his Texas constituents, a group of whom, in the city of Odessa, were recently found to have turned an allegedly secular public high school Bible studies course into a hodgepodge of myth and religious teaching.

ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, i hold here in my hand a miracle. that's right, i said a miracle. it's a secret formula brought to america by the healers of [insert third world country here], and it will cure your most dreaded afflictions. the fda? they are elitist eggheads who don't understand the problems of real life like you and i do. they say, "you can't sell that here, we haven't tested it!" well i'm here to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, you can't test what you don't understand, and that's the healing power of GOD!

just $50.00, ma'am, and your husband won't bother you ever again. thank you very much. who's next?

wassup, dawg?

my dog bit me yesterday.

today, after a visit to the emergency room and the pharmacy, my thumb is throbbing.

but at least it's still attached.

for the record, gunnar isn't mean, he's just stupid. he wanted to eat a dog license form, and my thumb got in the way.

he grabbed the form, and the last half inch of my nail, and clamped down. oh, yeah, he got me good.

the emergency room physician did a fine job with the repairs. first, with the local anesthetic; okay, that hurt. he needled "the four nerves in the thumb," one at a time, each more painful than the last.

then he cut back the nail to expose the nail matrix, which gunnar had made a mess of. then he sutured the whole thing back together. that kinda hurt, too.

bla bla bla, long story short, my weekend is shot. the dog is oblivious. and i'm on augmentin and vicodin.

and the thumb is still throbbing.

frick.

not so fast

the idiot bush, attempting to deflect attention from his treasonous henchman karl rove, today accelerated the selection of a supreme court nominee to replace sandra day o'connor.

so over the next few days/weeks we'll be overwhelmed with rhetoric about the suitability of the nominee, and, in theory, rove's outing of a cia agent will fade to black.

before that happens, let's look back to 2001 when the idiot bush was babbling about the level of discourse in his administration:

"[W]e must remember the high standards that come with high office. This begins with careful adherence to the rules. I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct. This means avoiding even the appearance of problems. This means checking and, if need be, doublechecking that the rules have been obeyed. This means never compromising those rules."

karl rove, the president's brain, blew the cover of a cia agent for political gain.

now, through administrative and procedural sleight of hand, the president would like everyone to forget this fact.

the president, therefore, is at the very least an accessory to treason.

my favorite thing about chicago...

leaving.

and while that's totally unfair, and generally unsupportable, it is nonetheless true.

let us stipulate that chicago is a great city. the architecture is spectacular, it is teeming with friendly people, and there are some great restaurants.

i spent three days there this week, amidst all that splendiferousness...and i still couldn't wait to leave.

i know. the failing is mine. apparently the charm of business travel has deserted me, so no matter how accommodating the location, i can't wait to get the hell out of there.

thus the paradox: i'm having a great time, let's leave.

which way today?

dick cheney says the insurgency is in its last throes. donald rumsfeld says the insurgency could go on for a dozen years.

which is it, fuckers?

i ask this not because of the 1,700 american dead in iraq, but because the wild rhetoric from the bush administration is giving me whiplash.

this war is about WMD.

this war is about freedom.

this war is about terrorists.

this war is about 9/11.

which is it, fuckers?

1,500 US deaths ago it was "mission accomplished". now it's an open-ended commitment to some undefined objectives.

previously, taking down saddam would make the US safer. now iraq is the main battle field against terrorism.

which is it, fuckers?

what's that ringing?

if it's the fourth of july, it must be freedom.

even if the ringing is muffled and muted this year.

freedom of speech is under attack, and if congress has its way, burning an american flag will become a criminal act. apparently some political speech is too unpleasant to hear.

to be sure, not all speech should be protected. for example, you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater.

but for some reason, george bush can yell "9/11" any time his poll numbers drop.

i bought my first flag in september, 2001.

and now it looks like i may have burn it.

what a waste of $75.

looking good, louis...

i spent a boatload of money at nordstrom this weekend.

black suit. shirts. ties. shoes.

i. look. good.



yeah, kinda like that, but white. and without the gun.

i don't have near enough occasions to wear this stuff, mind you. i may start a trend at the dog-walk park. the gym on the weekend. the neighbors' house for dinner.

i'll be overdressed, but still. i'll look good.

running, man

actor portrayal; not the actual author.


yesterday was my birthday. i'm now 44.

today i went for my first run as a 44 year old. the results were decidedly mixed.

on the one hand, i trudged like a clydesdale. on the other, i did over four miles in 34 minutes, on a hilly course. and i didn't get hurt.

i can't complain.

along the way i asked myself why i continue to run, to work out, to play basketball. the first thing that popped into my head was, "so i can run with my son one day, when he's getting in shape for his sports."

that's partly true. but i also like feeling as though i could run from something dangerous if it were chasing me: a land shark, or a republican, or an angry toddler.

of course i'm also running from death, and damned if satchel paige wasn't right: every time i look over my shoulder, the grim reaper is gaining on me. relentless bastard. doesn't matter. i'm going to delay the inevitable as long as possible. when it arrives, i intend to insult it with rude comments about its wardrobe and personal grooming habits.

by the time my son (and then my daughter) is old enough to run a couple miles, i'll be at least 50. damn, fifty. it seems ancient...it's hard to imagine i could ever be so old. but being 44, and one day 50, beats the alternative.

hey, death, you need a flea bath. and that cloak looks ridiculous. something in pink plaid would be an upgrade, jaggazz.

see? death may be on his way, but he'll get no satisfaction from me.

we can't hear you, la la la la...

"shut up! shut up! we will not listen to any more of this! shut up, or i'm leaving!"



this is house judiciary chairman james sensenbrenner (r-wis).

despite the burly, manly demeanor of his photo, he's actually a dainty, fussy, mama's boy, prone to taking his microphone and going home. hard to believe, isn't it?

After repeated criticism of the Bush administration, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday gaveled a hearing to a close and walked out while Democrats continued to testify -- but with their microphones shut off.

C-SPAN2 continued televising the proceedings for six minutes after Sensenbrenner had departed, with lettering on the screen explaining the strange circumstances.

big jimmy, it seems, won't hear any criticism of the bush administration, nor brook any questioning of the "patriot act", no matter how relevant it may be. in this case, a hearing on the renewal of that act provided the relevance.

during the hearing, several republicans testified to the brilliance and necessity of curtailing the civil rights of americans. but when democrats attempted to provide couterpoint, sensenbrenner had a meltdown...

He urged witnesses to "wrap it up" and repeatedly told committee members that their time for questioning had expired.

"We ought to stick to the subject," the chairman scolded at the end. "The Patriot Act has nothing to do with Guantanamo Bay. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with enemy combatants. The Patriot Act has nothing to do with indefinite detentions."

"Will the gentleman yield?" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) asked.

"No, I will not yield," replied Sensenbrenner, 61, the heir to a paper fortune who is known for a brusque insistence on decorum. He completed his reproof of the witnesses and left the Rayburn House Office Building hearing room amid a cacophony of protests from Democrats seeking to be recognized.

as noted by rep. debbie wasserman schultz (d-fla), the minority was allowed to call zero outside witnesses during the hearing.

decorum, it appears, is reserved for republicans in our government.

just sit there and look pretty, honey...

george w. bush thinks women make damn fine reporters.

as long as they don't ask any troublesome questions or write about anything but home ec.

that's probably why he doesn't call on women at press conferences. either that or he's a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.

as an evangelical, he no doubt believes it's the man's role to be the head of the family, and the woman's role to be its heart. it's a woman reporter's role, therefore, to sit down and shut up while the president calls on another guy.

like biffo or goomba or hammy. one of the guys he's given goofy nicknames to. meanwhile, maureen dowd can't get a white house press pass.


bush demonstrates how he milks bulls in crawford, texas.

the real reason bush doesn't engage the female members of the media? he's afraid of his wife. first time he gets all cute and smarmy with one of them filly reporters, laura bush turns george into a gelding.

not that anyone would notice the difference.