my monkey just told me about an idea he picked up on another blog’s comments section. it sounded too funny not to pass on.
after you see farenheit 9-11 in the theater, take your ticket stub, put it in an envelope, and mail it to:
president george w bush
1600 pennsylvania ave
washington, dc 20500
enclose a note which reads “i know what you did last summer”.
luckily, i have four stubs to mail out right away.
my monkey just told me about an idea he picked up on another blog’s comments section. it sounded too funny not to pass on.
after you see farenheit 9-11 in the theater, take your ticket stub, put it in an envelope, and mail it to:
president george w bush
1600 pennsylvania ave
washington, dc 20500
enclose a note which reads “i know what you did last summer”.
luckily, i have four stubs to mail out right away.
my monkey just told me about an idea he picked up on another blog’s comments section. it sounded too funny not to pass on.
after you see farenheit 9-11 in the theater, take your ticket stub, put it in an envelope, and mail it to:
president george w bush
1600 pennsylvania ave
washington, dc 20500
enclose a note which reads “i know what you did last summer”.
luckily, i have four stubs to mail out right away.
…howard dean formally announced his candidacy at the declaration celebration in burlington, vermont. by then i’d already been an active volunteer for more than 8 months, but that day was special. it was howard’s chance to formally introduce himself to the electorate, and he gave a truly historic speech on that occassion, appropriately named the Great American Restoration. i am still floored by it. here is one of my favorite passages:
So how did we come to this point?
How is it that our leaders have abandoned our communities and repudiated our idealism and principles?
When confronted with a dedicated band of right wing ideologues, too many Americans have stopped participating, stopped voting, and stopped believing that they can change America.
And we in politics have not given our people a reason to vote or a reason to participate. We have slavishly spewed sound bites, copying each other while saying little. We raise millions of dollars and each year make lofty promises, while every year the struggles of ordinary Americans increase and fewer Americans vote.
Our politicians, many of them good people, have been paralyzed by their fear of losing office. Our leaders have developed a vocabulary which has become meaningless to the American people.
There is no greater example of this than a self-described conservative Republican president who creates the greatest deficits in history of America. Or a President who boasts of a Clear Skies Initiative which allows far more pollution into our air. Or a President who co-opts from an advocacy organization the phrase “No Child Left Behind,” while paying for irresponsible tax cuts by cutting children’s health care.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
The history of our nation is clear: At every turn when there has been an imbalance of power, the truth questioned, or our beliefs and values distorted, the change required to restore our nation has always come from the bottom up — from our people.
And so, while the President raises $4 million more tonight to maintain his agenda, we will not be silent.
He calls his biggest fundraisers Rangers and Pioneers.
But today, we stand together with thousands in Burlington, Vermont and tens of thousands more, standing with us right now in every state in this nation. And we call ourselves, simply, Americans.
And we stand today in common purpose to take our country back.
*sniffle* *wiping away tears*
i wrote up two posts that day, one directing people to the webcast and the other a formal endorsement of my own.
re-reading that endorsement tonight – and howard’s speech – was bittersweet. i still feel that what i wrote about a hypothetical dean administration would have been true:
A Dean administration will be of the people, by the people, and for the people. It won’t be for fat-cat contributors and corporations. A Dean administration will rip the Bush Doctrine to shreds, and embark on a foreign policy marked by cooperation with our allies rather than alienation. A Dean administration will right the wrongs which have been done to our fiscal house, and once again make social justice a priority. A Dean administration will unite us all, rather than divide us by party, race, gender, and sexual orientation. As Howard Dean has repeatedly said, this is not a campaign for him. It’s a campaign for us. It’s about us exercising that ultimate “check” (which I’ve discussed at length in past entries) on our government, and returning it to the people.
that was the whole point, you know? it was about giving government back to us. people – especially the media HOs – really misunderstood why we were all so dedicated. it was because participating in our democracy is the best thing we can do to ensure it’s health. and howard got that. he understood that our country is in crisis, and he promised to restore our faith in our government. i still believe he would have done that. none of his actions since the demise of the campaign have indicated otherwise.
so today, i thank howard dean once again for giving me hope. i thank joe trippi for taking the grassroots seriously. i thank everyone i met along the way – from campaign staff to all the volunteers i met in washington, iowa, oklahoma, and online (hello blog family!). you pulled me out of one of the greatest periods of personal depression i’ve known in my life. you restored my hope, and today i just wanted to say thank you and “i still believe” (after all there is always 2008 *wink*).
on another note, i also found out about some scary news from the blog family today. one of our long time activists, kimmy cash (founder of punx for democracy and D.I.Y. politics) is in the hospital. she’s pregnant and has some complications, and the worst thing is that she’s among the millions of americans without health insurance. normally i wouldn’t get into cyber-begging for anyone other than political candidates, but for kimmy – whom i absolutely adore and care about quite a lot – i will make an exception. a paypal account has been set up – amidst many protests from kimmy – to try and help pay her medical bills. if you’re so inclined, the paypal addy is fvaus AT hotmail DOT com. kimmy, be well!
and finally, to end this post with a bit of snark (gotta fulfill the quota for the day), i noticed that joe’s blog made it through the entire day without mentioning the anniversary. pardon me for saying what nobody else has the balls to say, but would there really be a “change for america” today if the dean campaign hadn’t come first? would joe have had the impetus to start that organisation if he wouldn’t have been exposed to the grassroots volunteer movement that coalesced behind howard dean? i don’t have the anwers, but i think those are perfectly valid questions.
anyway, the point of this post is not to be negative. i am hopeful again, and for that, i acknowledge the importance of this date and say a little prayer of thanks. i know the journey’s not over yet, as we’ve only been at this for a year. i am – for once – really looking forward to the future.
related links: 1 – pics from burlington, 2 – watch the speech (real player)
attention media WHORES. since the only thing that seems to hold your attention is a sex scandal, why don’t you try this one on for size:
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jack Ryan’s ex-wife, TV actress Jeri Ryan, accused him of taking her to sex clubs in New York and Paris, where he tried to coerce her into having sex with him in front of strangers, according to records released Monday from the couple’s California divorce file.
…
In her 2000 filing, Jeri Ryan alleged that after she and Jack Ryan left the first sex club they entered in New York, he asked her to go to another. She said he told her that he had gone out to dinner with her that night even though he didn’t want to and “the least I could do in return was go to the club he wanted me to go.”
She described the second place as “a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling.”
“Respondent wanted me to have sex with him there with another couple watching. I refused,” Jeri Ryan continued. “Respondent asked me to perform a sexual activity upon him and he specifically asked other people to watch. I was very upset.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
ladies and gentlemen, meet your new senator from illinois, barack obama:
i endorsed barack obama months ago because i believe he represents the future of the democratic party. he is smart, honest, progressive, and he has a great record of public service. if you’re in illinois, please consider joining his campaign. and if you would like to help put barack over the top, please consider donating to his campaign. every little bit helps.
* thanks to attaturk for the news link
oliver willis is catching hell in his comments thread for commenting on this NYT article dicussing the 7 minutes bush spent in that florida classroom after he was informed that america was under attack.
the commenters basically tow the line that it’s no big deal; nothing could have been done in 7 minutes to prevent the tragedy. they are also flaming oliver for presenting a fair and balanced viewpoint of moore’s film. well first, i suggest they go check out what the reviewer on faux news had to say about the flick:
Before anyone’s even seen it, there have been partisan debates over which way Moore may have spun this or that to get a desired effect.
But, really, in the end, not seeing “F9/11” would be like allowing your First Amendment rights to be abrogated, no matter whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat.
…
More than even “The Passion of the Christ,” “F9/11” is going to be a “see it for yourself” movie when it hits theaters on June 25. It simply cannot be missed, and I predict it will be a huge moneymaker.
but more than that, the question remains: what could have been done in seven minutes? now that we have a complete timeline, we can try and find out. FAA and NORAD’s ineptness on that day are glaringly obvious, especially if you’ve heard the audio tapes (which go a long way toward explaining why the FAA destroyed tapes that morning). but putting all that aside, there are still a few instances where inaction arguably cost people their lives. to paraphrase the comments i left over on oliver’s thread:
by 8:53am, fighter jets had been scrambled and were hovering in the air over long island, new york
at 9:03am, united 175 crashed into the south tower (this is the second impact) in manhattan
at 9:08am, the fighter jets receive takedown orders and are sent into manhattan
that’s five minutes. had the takedown order come 7 minutes earlier, there is a realistic possibility that the crash into the south tower could have been prevented. the fighter jets were less than a minute from manhattan ten minutes before united 175 hit the south tower.
bush’s inaction that day arguably cost lives in new york, washington, and pennsylvania. this is not to say i lay blame at his feet for 9-11; there is no evidence to suggest that he was directly involved with the planning and execution of those attacks. i am merely pointing out that it’s not outside the realm of possibility to imagine that everyone who died in the south tower might have been alive today had those jets received their takedown orders seven minutes earlier.
bush yesterday:
“This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda… We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.”
oh really? from president bush’s letter (courtesy of whitehouse.gov) to the speaker of the house the day before we invaded iraq:
Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)
Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:
(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and
(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Sincerely,
GEORGE W. BUSH
so much for restoring honor and dignity to the white house…
the statement, as promised:
The undersigned have held positions of responsibility for the planning and execution of American foreign and defense policy. Collectively, we have served every president since Harry S. Truman. Some of us are Democrats, some are Republicans or Independents, many voted for George W. Bush. But we all believe that current Administration policies have failed in the primary responsibilities of preserving national security and providing world leadership. Serious issues are at stake. We need a change.
From the outset, President George W. Bush adopted an overbearing approach to America’s role in the world, relying upon military might and righteousness, insensitive to the concerns of traditional friends and allies, and disdainful of the United Nations. Instead of building upon America’s great economic and moral strength to lead other nations in a coordinated campaign to address the causes of terrorism and to stifle its resources, the Administration, motivated more by ideology than by reasoned analysis, struck out on its own. It led the United States into an ill-planned and costly war from which exit is uncertain. It justified the invasion of Iraq by manipulation of uncertain intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, and by a cynical campaign to persuade the public that Saddam Hussein was linked to Al Qaeda and the attacks of September 11. The evidence did not support this argument.
Our security has been weakened. While American airmen and women, marines, soldiers and sailors have performed gallantly, our armed forces were not prepared for military occupation and nation building. Public opinion polls throughout the world report hostility toward us. Muslim youth are turning to anti-American terrorism. Never in the two and a quarter centuries of our history has the United States been so isolated among the nations, so broadly feared and distrusted. No loyal American would question our ultimate right to act alone in our national interest; but responsible leadership would not turn to unilateral military action before diplomacy had been thoroughly explored.
The United States suffers from close identification with autocratic regimes in the Muslim world, and from the perception of unquestioning support for the policies and actions of the present Israeli Government. To enhance credibility with Islamic peoples we must pursue courageous, energetic and balanced efforts to establish peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and policies that encourage responsible democratic reforms.
We face profound challenges in the 21st Century: proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, unequal distribution of wealth and the fruits of globalization, terrorism, environmental degradation, population growth in the developing world, HIV/AIDS, ethnic and religious confrontations. Such problems can not be resolved by military force, nor by the sole remaining superpower alone; they demand patient, coordinated global effort under the leadership of the United States.
The Bush Administration has shown that it does not grasp these circumstances of the new era, and is not able to rise to the responsibilities of world leadership in either style or substance. It is time for a change.
indeed. the list of signatories may be found here.
cheney-approved 9-11 commission yesterday:
“We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.”
bush today:
“The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda [is] because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.”
i have pdfs of the commission staff statements. if you want me to upload them so you can read them and judge for yourself, leave a comment.
update: also from the wapo link:
The commission staff, in yesterday’s report, said that while bin Laden was in Sudan between 1991 and 1996, a senior Iraqi intelligence officer made three visits to Sudan, and that he had a meeting with bin Laden in 1994. Bin Laden was reported to have sought training camps and assistance in getting weapons, “but Iraq never responded,” the staff said. The report said that bin Laden “at one time sponsored anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan.”
if you want to consider a single contact which did not result in collaboration a “relationship”, then we may as well be discussing what the meaning of the word “is” is.
update: let us also not forget who controlled iraqi kurdistan while bin laden was sponsoring terrorist activities there against saddam’s secular regime. using wingnut logic, that would mean the US, UK, and french governments had a “relationship” with people who sheltered terrorists. does that mean we should drop daisy cutters on washington dc?*
update: in the comments, mallarme points out something that he asserts on his blog, that “Bush’s statement (is) semantically correct even though his intent is still to mislead.” i agree with him, and i conclude that it doesn’t matter if he’s semantically correct. imagine if bill clinton were making this assertion – the media and the GOP would be all over this! bush is pulling the same crap with this issue that clinton pulled with lewinsky – only nobody died when clinton lied. isn’t this a much more serious issue than whether “sexual relations” include cigar insertion? i think so, and i say game over.
*sorry, just taking it to the illogical wingnut extreme conclusion
msnbc right now:
Pentagon officials tell NBC News that late last year, at the same time U.S. military police were allegedly abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered that one Iraqi prisoner be held “off the books” — hidden entirely from the International Red Cross and anyone else — in possible violation of international law.
…
In the military’s own investigation into prisoner abuse, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said efforts to hide prisoners from the Red Cross were “deceptive” and a “violation of international law.”
…
Pentagon officials still insist Rumsfeld acted legally, but admit it all depends on how you interpret the law.
ah, finally working our way up the food chain. a few bad apples, my arse. rummy gave a direct order to hide a prisoner from the red cross. this violates the geneva convention. can you say “war crimes” mister secretary?
then there was the poll, which was commissioned by our own coalition provisional authority:
The poll, conducted by Iraqis in face-to-face interviews in six cities with people representative of the country’s various factions, conflict with the generally upbeat assessments the administration continues to give Americans. Just last week, President Bush predicted future generations of Iraqis ”will come to America and say, thank goodness America stood the line and was strong and did not falter in the face of the violence of a few.”
The current generation seems eager for Americans to leave, the poll found.
The coalition’s confidence rating in May stood at 11 percent, down from 47 percent in November, while coalition forces had just 10 percent support. Nearly half of Iraqis said they felt unsafe in their neighborhoods.
And 55 percent of Iraqis reported to the pollsters they would feel safer if U.S. troops immediately left, nearly double the 28 percent who felt that way in January. Forty-one percent said Americans should leave immediately, and 45 percent said they preferred for U.S. forces to leave as soon as a permanent Iraqi govermnment is installed.
it doesn’t get much worse than this, except for maybe all-out civil war. nobody wants that to happen; i hope that it doesn’t. but i honestly do not trust our administration to fix it between now and january. but let’s hope the country can hang on that long. i have hope that we’ll get a lot more help from our friends once we have regime change here at home.
and then there was the press conference. 27 (retired) senior government officials will be releasing a statement suggesting that bush needs to be defeated. from the press conference:
“Over nearly half a century we have worked energetically in all regions of the world, often in very difficult circumstances, to build piece by piece a structure of respect and influence for the United States that has served our county very well over the last 60 years…Today we see that structure crumbling under an administration blinded by ideology and a callous indifference to the realities of the world around it. Never before have so many of us felt the need for a major change in the direction of our foreign policy.”
that was spokeswoman phyllis oakley, who has about thirty years of civil service experience. combined, the signees have centuries of experience in foreign policy and government service. their statement is supposed to be issued tomorrow.
and with the biggest news of all (for all you right wingers trolling around here, that’s a freakin’ newsmax link to go with all that damned librrruuul media). the commission has concluded something the thinking half of the population has known for quite some time: saddam hussein did not pose an imminent threat, nor was he actively engaged in supporting terrorism. the war was a sham. i grabbed this comment off the MRR blog, and i think this sums it up nicely:
I don’t care what any other intelligence source says or what CLINTON said. The 9/11 commission that CHENEY APPROVED has reported this week that there IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN Iraq and Al Qaeda. What anybody else said before that is IRRELEVANT. FINE, SO WE ALL AGREE THAT WE ALL THOUGHT IRAQ HAD WMDs and WAS CONNECTED TO AL Qaeda before the INVASION(I don’t believe that but just amuse me). The fact is that the 9/11 commission has just reported that there is no connection so if CHENEY says otherwise HE IS LYING, as of NOW!!!!
Posted by: Jeff at June 16, 2004 08:22 PM
i’d actually revise that a bit and say that sure, we can assume that most of americans believed that there was a connection. i mean really, the bushies left that impression. every bit of rhetoric they used was designed to lead the populace into believing that saddam was an imminent threat to our nation because he possessed WMDs and on top of that he collaborated with al-quaeda and helped pull off the 911 attacks. and the SCLM sure as hell gave bush a big pass during the runup to the war. they did not do their job of informing the public, so i can totally see how people might have believed the administration.
i will buy that. even i was a bit concerned during the leadup to the war. i was fairly certain that bush was full of shite (after all, i’m a texan), but you never know. he was president at that point, and he had access to information that i don’t have access to. i pretty much gave him the benefit of the doubt the day the war started – even though it outraged me to the core of my being – and hoped that they were right.
well, they were wrong. but that’s not the point. the point is that – from here on out – if the bush administration continues to claim a connection between saddam hussein and 911, or saddam hussein and al-quaeda, then they are lying liars. if they don’t own up to this gigantic mistake, then they have no conscience. and that will confirm our worst suspicions: that they actively engaged in subterfuge against the american public, cherry picking intelligence and misleading us into a war for as yet unseen motives. worst. preznit. ever.
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