Duty to Warn

A senior staff person for one of the most progressive and courageous members of Congress recently advised a room full of peace activists that they won't be able to persuade Democrats to oppose the war simply by showing them polls finding that a majority of Americans oppose the war.  Rather they must assuage the Democrats' fears of being called "weak on national security."

But that's not possible.  Opponents of a war will inevitably be called weak on national security.  And even if that ceases to be the case, Democrats will continue to fear it for a generation or more.  My advice to you, Democratic Members of Congress, is to embrace it and change the discourse.  Don't run scared of someone else's language.  Learn to recognize when the greatest gift you could ask for is to be attacked by your discredited, despised, and indicted opponents. 

And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey
By Studs Terkel
The New Press (New York); hardback: 301 pages; $25.95

Few Americans can honestly be described as a "national treasure," but Studs Terkel is certainly one. And there is certainly just one Studs Terkel.

Feisty well into his nineties, Studs still has that unquenchable spirit and that ultimate radio voice. Our world has been bettered by him, in more ways than we can measure.

His newest book is a tribute to that legacy. And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey is a completely unique and fascinating compendium of Studs's brilliant, vanguard interviews with many of the most important figures in American culture.

Studs is at his incomparable best in the Introduction, explaining the origins of this, his first radio show, The Wax Museum. Soon after World War II, the owner of Chicago's classical music mecca at WFMT gave Studs (and the people of Chicago) the ultimate gift---an hour of radio time in which to do whatever he pleased.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Jeez, that was quite a hissy fit Tom DeLay had, calling Ronnie Earle a rogue prosecutor, a partisan fanatic and an unabashed partisan zealot out for personal revenge.

Ronnie Earle? Our very own mild-mannered -- well, let's be honest, bland as toast, eternally unexciting, Mr. Understatement, Old Vanilla -- Ronnie Earle? If the rest of Tom DeLay's defense is as accurate as his description of Ronnie Earle, DeLay might as well have himself measured for a white jumpsuit right now.

For the one-zillionth time, of the 15 cases Ronnie Earle has brought against politicians over the years, 12 of them were against Democrats. Earle was so aggressive in going after corrupt Democrats, the Republicans never even put up a candidate against him all during the '80s. Partisan is not a word anyone can honestly use about Ronnie Earle, but that sure doesn't stop the TV blabbermouths. So many of them have bought the Republican spin that Earle is on a partisan witch-hunt, the watchdogs like Media Matters can hardly keep up.

It's one thing to lie in politics. It's another to be caught in a lie. Bill Frist has been caught in a lie. His political future is over. The immediate question is, can he survive as Majority Leader?

The Tennessee Republican claims he wasn’t privy to any inside information leading up to the sale of his stock in Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the country’s largest for-profit hospital chain founded by Frist’s father, Thomas, and brother, Thomas Jr., weeks before the company reported lower than expected earnings July 13 that sent the stock south.

Now the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the matter, a spokesman for the senator said last week, to determine if Frist broke any laws.

Frist’s press secretary told the Washington Post last week that Frist decided to sell his stock to eliminate any appearance of a conflict-of-interest due to his work in the senate in shaping the nation’s healthcare policies. So, the senator’s spokesman said, Frist drafted a letter to Northern Trust and Equitable Trust in Nashville June 13 advising them to sell all of his stock in HCA, as well as his wife and children’s investments in the company.

With each month that passes, the Democratic Party seems to have touched bottom. Then it promptly sinks even deeper into the ooze of cowardice and irrelevance.

While Interstate 45 from Galveston to Houston was clogged with evacuees fleeing the wrath of Hurricane Rita, there was a similar jam on the beltway round Washington, D.C., as Democrats fled the city on the eve on the Sept. 24 antiwar rally, panic-stricken lest their presence in Washington might somehow be construed as endorsement of the rally's antiwar message.

Here's a war that the voting population of the United States views a hostility that is soaring by the day. The latest CNN poll released on Sept. 26 shows 67 percent disapproving of Bush's Iraq strategy. This represents a jump of 10 percent holding this position since CNN ran its last poll, less than a month ago.

More than half CNN's latest sample declare that Iraq will never become a democracy; 63 percent want to see a pull-out start right now.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The Big Whew blew over Texas, leaving Port Arthur underwater and whole lot of stress across the state. It is highly stressful to be in a car with two adults, three children, the dog and the cat for a 12-to-20 hour trip from Houston to Austin, Dallas or San Antonio. It is also stressful to have two adults, three children, their dog and their cat move into your 1,200-square-foot house with you, especially if your sister-in-law thinks anyone who criticizes George W. Bush is a tool of Satan.

Stress-sensitive groups like Alcoholics Anonymous were doing land-office business in Texas this weekend, while bartenders served up the KatrinaRita. Austin, of course, was also having a music festival and offering free yoga and aromatherapy sessions to hurricane refugees. Austin musicians have adopted New Orleans musicians en masse: You're practically no one if you haven't got a Neville in your guest room.

The refugees trade tales of heroism and generosity, along with reports of the bad and the ugly. That's human nature, but there's nothing forgivable about organized government corruption.

NEW ORLEANS -- I got out of our truck and approached the four cops standing in front of the Hwy 11 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. The bridge, which leads to New Orleans, was five miles across Lake Pontchartrain, five miles of Hurricane Rita flexing her muscles far out in the gulf, with blasting winds up to 90 mph. The bridge was secured to all traffic except military and police. My driver and colleague, Jacob, shook his head forlornly as we approached the road block; his blond afro seemed to droop in disappointment as the Louisiana State Trooper walked up to us.

“Bridge is closed. Don’t y’all listen to the radio? No one gets across.”

I waved my press badge at him, and said we needed to get to New Orleans to cover the storm. The trooper asked me to get out and tell my story to the other four cops waiting by the cars. Their eyes all snapped immediately to the Czech military pistol I was wearing in a holster on my hip.

“What in the hell is that?”

PEARL RIVER, LA - Despite the resignation of under qualified former FEMA director Michael D. Brown and the subsequent appointment of Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, residents of coastal Louisiana are vocally dissatisfied with the federal agency’s performance in the post-Katrina Mississippi Delta. I spoke with Jennifer Pulsifer, as she sat next to me at three in the morning, trying to get through the formidable busy signal presented to Red Cross callers day and night. My “office”, a ramshackle shed partially crushed by a large tree and swarming with giant, belligerent cockroaches and violent clouds of mosquitoes, is one of the few places in the neighborhood with a working phone. Locals come by at all hours of the night to place calls to various relief agencies. Nearly every call I’ve overheard has been frustrated with busy signals and off-putting messages.

Pulsifer remarks, “Come tax time they want your money, but right after a disaster they don’t want to help you out. Unless you left the state; then they’ll hand you a check if you’re in another state.”

Jennifer applied to FEMA for financial aid, but ran into difficulties.