Duty to Warn

AUSTIN, Texas -- Iraq and the media, the media and Iraq -- over and over. Last week was supposed to be a good media week for Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was dead. Taken out, we said, by a combination of American and Iraqi troops with Jordanian intelligence.

The churlish might note this was the second time the American military had announced Zarqawi's death -- but, hey, we've announced the capture of Osama's No. 2 guy at least seven or eighth times. Others claimed Zarqawi was never that important to begin with, indeed had been built up by our side. Still, that's a goal for our side, as they say in World Cup play.

Then reality got a bit bumpy. Zarqawi wasn't exactly dead when we found him. We put him on a stretcher and cleaned him up -- the fog of war intervened.

I distinctly remember people predicting the first time we killed Zarqawi that it wouldn't make much difference, so I presume they did it again. Thus, we get to revisit the old cackle over whether we are fighting international terrorists who have flocked to Iraq or a native uprising against our occupation of the country. Can't even agree on what's going on.

Nominal leader of the Democrats in Congress Nancy Pelosi, following talking points produced by the Republican National Committee, recently told her fellow Dems to keep impeachment off the table.  This past weekend, the Democratic Parties in Maine, New Hampshire, and Hawaii passed resolutions demanding impeachment.  This, of course, raises the question: Whose table is it, Nancy?

Whose table?  Our table!

These states joined the Democratic parties of Nevada, New Mexico, California, Wisconsin, and Vermont, and the executive committee of the North Carolina Democratic Party (their convention is later this month).  If Texas does it, that'll make 10.  Activists in other states have tried to pass impeachment resolutions but been blocked by their state party's leadership.  Most of the states that have succeeded have done so despite opposition from the leadership. This grassroots energy, along with every poll I've seen, suggests that making the coming elections about impeachment would mobilize lots and lots and lots of Democrats.  Not a shred of evidence supports the RNC-Pelosi claim that it would benefit Republicans.

Over 500 people in the packed hall applauded eagerly when Dr. Bob Bowman stated he was an advocate of doctor-controlled, single-payer health care for all.

They cheered louder still when the congressional candidate from Florida’s 15th District pledged that his first piece of legislation submitted in the House of Representatives would be articles of impeachment.  

But they simultaneously jumped to their feet and roared approval when he leaned over the podium to say he was running with a group of Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, Independents and non politicians “…who are all united by one thing.  We want to bring our troops home from George Bush’s quagmire in Iraq and expose the lies that allowed him to send them there, including 9/11.”

Experienced in stumping on the campaign trail, Bowman was more dynamic than most of the speakers at the Chicago conference dubbed, “9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming Our Future,” but many other speakers were just as adamant about referring to the events of September 11, 2001 as the excuse George Bush needed to invade Iraq and Afghanistan. 

They got him -- the big, bad, beheading berserker in Iraq.  But, something's gone unreported in all the glee over getting Zarqawi … who invited him into Iraq in the first place?

If you prefer your fairy tales unsoiled by facts, read no further.  If you want the uncomfortable truth, begin with this:  A phone call to Baghdad to Saddam's Palace on the night of April 21, 2003.  It was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on a secure line from Washington to General Jay Garner.

The General had arrives in Baghdad just hours before to take charge of the newly occupied nation.  The message from Rumsfeld was not a heartwarming welcome.  Rummy told Garner, Don't unpack, Jack -- you're fired.

What had Garner done?  The many-starred general had been sent by the President himself to take charge of a deeply dangerous mission. Iraq was tense but relatively peaceful.  Garner's job was to keep the peace and bring democracy.

Unfortunately for the general, he took the President at his word.   But the general was wrong.  "Peace" and "Democracy" were the slogans.

In the old days, they'd brandish the head of the captured chieftain from the battlements. These days, given the effects on human bone and tissue of artillery and 500-pound bombs, there's a cull from an old most-wanted list and then, when the morticians have done their work, a photo of the cadaver's visage, decently cleaned up.

When Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, were located and killed in July 2003, connoisseurs of the mortician's arts were particularly impressed by the efforts taken to make them presentable for post-mortem primetime.

At the White House press conference Thursday morning, there was gloating of course, just as there was when Saddam's sons were killed. It takes an effort now to recall that, like the late Zarqawi, Uday and Qusay, too, were credited with inspiring a large part of the resistance, and then, as now, guarded hopes were expressed in Washington that maybe some sort of a corner had been turned.

Officially, ten percent of San Franciscoans live in poverty, and homelessness is a massive problem in the city with the third highest median income in the country. There are more than 6,000 homeless individuals in San Francisco -- and probably more than 8,000. This fact is all the more disturbing considering that San Francisco is ranked the 11th meanest city for the homeless in the country by the National Coalition for the Homeless.

View a photo essay from San Francisco

Find out more information from the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco.

Conservatives love to talk about the so-called "liberal media" and its influence over the news. But just the opposite is true. And they know it. The media is either dominated by full-fledged kool-aid drinkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Rupert Murdoch, or sympathizers like Wolf Blitzer, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews and, yes, even the NY Times. It's the Repuglicans whose influence dictates the media's direction, and its coverage of both parties.

As the evidence of global warming becomes inescapable, I fear Americans will switch instead to a fatalistic pessimism. Maybe it’s real and maybe it’s our fault, this sentiment goes, but at this point there’s nothing we can do, so we’re off the hook.

It’s hard to deal with melting arctic glaciers, Katrina refugees who might never return to New Orleans, and floods that recently covered half of Bangladesh. Weather-related catastrophes cost a record $225 billion last year, with the impact of global climate change just beginning. Add in a president deep in denial, and it’s tempting to feel powerless.  We can’t even escape to the Weather Channel without a sense of impending doom.

Anne Coulter says we’re “Godless” — we “liberals.”  And by “liberals,” she means anyone who wants to keep the government out of our underpants, out of Iraq, and out of the business of helping Big Business shoplift America. 

It’s time someone took on the blonde bully.

Anne, I realize yesterday was special day for you, releasing your book on June 6 — 06-06-06.

Going through it, I must, admit, is heavy going:  ‘Godless’ is a 300-page brick of solid meanness and pin-head hatreds packaged like a fashion magazine:  Big Brother wears Prada.

You accuse those who don’t sign on to your list of prejudices as the Lord’s enemies.   That’s not original, Anne:  the Taliban thought of it before you and they too were partial to dressing in black.

You want to talk about Godless?  OK, let’s go:

Would the Lord lie us into a war?

Would the Lord let thousands drown in New Orleans while chilling at a golf resort?

Would the Lord have removed tens of thousands of Black soldiers from the voter rolls as the Republican Party did in 2004?