Op-Ed

Back at the start of the 1970s, President Nixon made a determined bid to split the antiwar movement. His strategy was to present himself as an environmentalist, a friend of Mother Earth. He celebrated Earth Day, founded the Environmental Protection Agency and, in so doing, proved himself a greener president than any since. (Watergate soon overwhelmed him, and the environmental movement displayed no appetite to defend their crusader.)

Listening to Bush on Tuesday night, I wondered whether he was trying to play the same game. How many Greens today dreamed they would hear George Bush call for more investment in "revolutionary solar and wind technologies," let alone "cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years."

The Guardian is reporting that Bush told Blair "that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of 'flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours'. Mr Bush added: 'If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach [of UN resolutions]'."
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/7408

This came out in a memo obtained by Phillipe Sands, QC, for the new edition of his book "Lawless World."  The memo is apparently the minutes of a two-hour meeting between Bush and Blair (and possibly the cast of Monty Python) which took place at the White House on January 31, 2003 – close to two months before the "decision" to go to war. 

Remarks prepared for California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus meeting in Los Angeles, Jan. 28, 2006

I was asked to speak about "Creating National Action as an Individual," so here are a few thoughts.  Back in May, five of us individuals brought a bunch of groups together as a coalition called "After Downing Street" www.afterdowningstreet.org  We used the internet and radio and lots of activism to force the Downing Street Minutes into the news.  Our success came from tapping into passion among a large section of the public for exposing the war lies and pushing the idea of impeachment. 

We helped organize hearings in Congress and helped promote various bills that created debate but were killed in committee.  We helped move opinion against the war by exposing its fraudulent basis.  We helped make it safe for Congressman Conyers to create an investigation into grounds for impeachment.  It wasn't five people who did this, though, it was hundreds of thousands.  And it wasn't an organization, but a coalition with organizations as members.

Hours after Coretta Scott King died, President Bush led off the State of the Union address by praising her as “a beloved, graceful, courageous woman who called America to its founding ideals and carried on a noble dream.” For good measure, at the end of his speech, Bush reverently invoked the name of her martyred husband, Martin Luther King Jr.

The president is one of countless politicians who zealously oppose most of what King struggled for -- at the same time that they laud his name with syrupy words. It wouldn’t be shrewd to openly acknowledge the basic disagreements. Instead, Bush and his allies offer up platitudes while pretending that King’s work ended with the fight against racial segregation.

Now that Dr. King’s widow is no longer alive, the smarmy process will be even easier: Just praise him as a beloved civil rights leader, as though the last few years of his life -- filled with struggles for economic justice and peace -- didn’t exist. Ignore King’s profound challenge to the kind of budget priorities and militarism holding sway today.

AUSTIN, Texas -- "We're on the offensive in Iraq, with a clear plan for victory. First, we are helping Iraqis build an inclusive government, so that old resentments will be eased and the insurgency will be marginalized. Second, we're continuing reconstruction efforts and helping the Iraqi government to fight corruption and build a modern economy, so all Iraqis can experience the benefit of freedom. And, third, we're striking terrorist targets while we train Iraqi forces that are increasingly capable of defeating the enemy." -- George W. Bush

"The Iraq war has been a disaster." -- CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour.

-- The number of terrorist attacks per day in Iraq grew from 55 in December 2004 to 77 per day in December 2005.

-- Electricity production in Iraq has not yet recovered to prewar levels, and the electricity in Baghdad is on less today than it was under Saddam Hussein. On the other hand, telephone and Internet use are up.

You'd think that after doing this State of the Union thing five times he'd finally get it right and say something new and meaningful. Instead, what we got was another dose of some good ole Texas drivel. Nothing more than a bunch of Rovian talking points mixed in with a few lies and lots of deception. And empty promises. And sugar-coated liberal-bashing. And I gave up "Queer Eye" for this?

This speech was classic King George. In the same chamber that he pays homage to civil rights leader Coretta Scott King, who died yesterday, he has Iraq anti-war lightening rod Cindy Sheehan tossed for wearing a t-shirt that showed the number of dead U.S. soldiers. Ain't protesting a bitch?

Fresh from my utter frustration over the Democrats' failed (and pathetic, I might add) attempt to filibuster Samuel J. Alito Jr., I have to also admit that I'm getting Irritable Bowel Syndrome listening to conservative twits like Pat Buchanan declare that it is President Bush and VP Dick Cheney whom "Americans want to protect them." Exactly which Americans are they talking about, because last time I checked, most of the country's voters, according to the latest polls, think the Busheviks are responsible for much of the nation's woes. As for the myth perpetuated by Buchanan and other GOP spin-monkeys, maybe it's due to years of unfair double-standards in this country that Texans and ranchers are tough guys while New Englanders like John Kerry are wimpy prep-school sissyboys. It must be that, because it sure as hell ain't based on facts or on the record of these two draft-dodgers since they grabbed power back in 2000.

So to set the record straight, let's revisit this impressive record, shall we?:

1. It was on Bush/Cheney's watch that the worst terrorist act in our history occurred

AUSTIN, Texas -- In a happy harmonic convergence, Groundhog Day falls only two days after the State of the Union Address this year. Some days, I'd feel better with Punxsutawney Phil in the Oval Office -- at least he doesn't lie about the weather. The Bush administration is now trying to stop NASA's top climate scientist from speaking out on the need for prompt action on global warming. As far as we know, the groundhog isn't suppressing anyone, he just calls it as he sees it.

James E. Hansen, longtime head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, gave a speech last month calling for immediate reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases because global warming is so pressing. He says since then NASA has reviewed his coming lectures, papers, postings and requests for interviews from journalists. "They feel their job is to be this censor of information going out to the public," said Hansen. The top P.R. guy denies it, saying, "It's about coordination."

He had his day. Now let's drag him out of sainthood and back into controversy and relevance.

Martin Luther King has more to give us in the 21st century than a three-day weekend. Just read the speeches that haven't been chiseled in stone yet.

"This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers."

The public accolades ladled upon this fallen leader embalm him in sentimentality, in some glass case in the pantheon of national heroes, next to Washington, Lincoln, Elvis, et al. Then once a year we cherry-pick a memorable phrase here or there ("I have a dream" comes to mind for some reason), as though the words are frozen in history, part of a time when there was struggle and disagreement and prejudice.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Several great minds were asked to help think up interview questions for George W. Bush. I liked, "Are you the worst president since James Buchanan, or have you never heard of him?"

Sorry about the snarkiness quotient, but is there anything these folks can't screw up -- and then refuse to own up to? Iraq is the most difficult to judge because it's so far away. I can find no indication -- from hours of electricity available to amount of oil being pumped to number of dead people -- that hints at any improvement.

On the other hand, even though I don't think it's my job, I can't prove that pulling out won't make things worse. Judging the good news-bad news volume from Iraq took such an exceptional lurch to ludicrous, it's now difficult to even try to judge it with a straight face.