Posts

*The presidential contenders on what I think of as the dark side are almost without exception a group of warmongering, bigoted champions of divisiveness, catering to their core supporters. Are their sons and daughters serving in Iraq? Don't ask. In the meantime, from the heartland to the coasts young men and women from ordinary American families are dying every day for the war that Bush-Cheney and the neocons gave us. Karl Rove is gone from the White House but continues to play the same old song. From skewed tax cuts to the war in Iraq and women's right to choose, Republicans' positions are full of distortions and hypocrisy. They are adept in spreading fear. While their personal lives are far from exemplary, Republican politicians wrap themselves in the flag, wave the bible and talk about patriotism, morality and god. They want a victory in Iraq but cannot offer a clear definition of what "victory" means to them. They half-heartedly criticize the way the war has been managed but do not question the justification for it. They have decided to ignore the facts that are known about the lies used by the president to take the nation to war. And except for Giuliani they are falling over each other for support of the anti-choice voters. *IraqHow is the president's war going? Fourteen American soldiers died today in a helicopter crash in Northern Iraq, bringing the total to 3722, including 64 this month. Source: iCasualties.orgJonathan Steele in The Guardian:Like Bush, Maliki has become a lame duck. Bush of course can stay in office for another 17 months. Maliki can also stagger on in charge of a minority government, since no other Iraqi seems able or willing to put a different coalition together. And, for all his tough talk about seeing Maliki replaced, Bush is doomed to go on supporting him. A vacuum in Baghdad would look even worse in American voters' eyes. In one sense, the crisis only confirms what has been clear for months. Whoever sits in the Green Zone in nominal charge of Iraq's government has little power or authority beyond its walls. Bush's political project for Iraq looks more fragile than ever.

The DemocratsNo mud slinging....yet. The contenders are doing their thing, jockeying for position, with Senator Hillary Clinton (NY) at the head of the pack followed by Senator Barack Obama (IL). Do they excite you ? Is there one who sounds different than other politicians who have gone through it before them ? To be fair one must face the fact that the process allows them little room for being outside the mainstream. The issues and the voters require the candidates to follow the beaten path.Although she is low on my list I'll vote for Senator Clinton if she wins the nomination. Senator Obama, too, has failed to make much of an impression. Where I'm concerned, it is John Edwards of North Carolina whose voice rises above the din. Yesterday, the presidential contenders appeared at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, for a debate. International Herald Tribune reported:"How about a little hope and optimism?" said Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, drawing applause from the audience as he sought to inject himself into a long-running foreign policy dispute between Obama and Clinton. "Where did it go?" *Twittering MusafirExplored twittering web sites. Full of chatter, most of it just that....chatter. There is need for some people to be able to say things off the top of their heads and twittering sites offer them the platform for doing so. The process is evolving and could be an important part of the world wide web. Comments Anonymous — 2007-08-21 Sir: Agree with your assessment. However, with the way things are currently going, we might have a semi-grisly surprise ending just when you thought no one was looking: Ron Paul. yrs ever f

*Karl Rove * President Bush * Iraq CasualtiesKarl Rove exits center stage. That, however, does not mean that he will quietly settle down somewhere. We are going to hear of him in a new role......perhaps as adviser to one of the Republican presidential contenders. The nefarious, Machiavellian Rove served the president well by capitalizing on divisive issues and orchestrating dirty tricks. Some one like Milt Romney, who seems to like every bad thing that President Bush has done, would be happy to add Rove to his team.As to the president's pet names for Rove, "Turd Blossom" is more appropriate by far than "the architect".Turd Blossom, according to partisans of Karl Rove and George Bush, is a Texan term for a flower which grows from a pile of cow dung. The term has gained notoriety in the United States as reportedly this is one of President George W. Bush's terms of endearment for his former chief political advisor, Karl Rove. Bush is also reported to call Rove by the nickname ”Boy Genius.“ Few, if any, native Texans would recognize this definition of 'turd blossom.' 'Turd blossom' was used in 1960s Texas high school slang to describe the spreading smell of a fart, or the spreading stain of a loose bowel movement. Neither Rove nor George W. Bush attended high school in Texas, and they may have been unfamiliar with the original use of the word. 'Fart blossom' was a common variant. (Source: Wikipedia) * How many more, Mr. President? Thirtysix (36) American soldiers died in the first 13 days of August. Names confirmed by DOD listed below. Cumulative total 3694. Source: iCasualties.orgTravis S. Bachman, 30, Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class, Aug 01, 2007Cristian Rojas-Gallego, 24, Army Specialist, Aug 02, 2007Eric D. Salinas, 25, Army Specialist, Aug 02, 2007Fernando Santos, 29, Army Staff Sergeant, Aug 02, 2007Julian Ingles Rios, 52, Army National Guard Master Sergent, Aug 02, 2007Cristian Vasquez, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Aug 02, 2007Jaron D. Holliday, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Aug 04, 2007Jason K. Lafleur, 28, Army Corporal, Aug 04, 2007Braden J. Long, 19, Army Specialist, Aug 04, 2007Matthew M. Murchison, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Aug 04, 2007Dustin S. Wakeman, 25, Army Sergeant, Aug 04, 2007Joey D. Link, 29, Air Force Technical Sergeant, Aug 05, 2007Blackwell. Justin R., 27, Army Specialist, Aug 05, 2007Jeremy S. Bohannon, 18, Army Private, Aug 05, 2007Charles E. Leonard Jr., 29, Army Specialist, Aug 05, 2007Juan M. Alcantara, 22, Army Corporal, Aug 06, 2007Nicholas A. Gummersall, 23, Army Sergeant, Aug 06, 2007Kareem R. Khan, 20, Army Specialist, Aug 06, 2007Christopher T. Neiberger, 22, Army Specialist, Aug 06, 2007Jacob M. Thompson, 26, Army Staff Sergeant, Aug 06, 2007Reynold Armand, 21, Marine Corporal, Aug 07, 2007Jon E. Bonnell Jr., 22, Marine Sergeant, Aug 07, 2007Donald M. Young, 0, Army Specialist, Aug 08, 2007Joan J. Duran, 24, Army Staff Sergeant, Aug 10, 2007William L. Edwards, 23, Army Private 1st Class, Aug 11, 2007Justin Penrod, 24, Army Specialist, Aug 11, 2007©iCasualties.org * “I find war detestable but those who praise it without participating in it even more so”---Romain Rolland

*"August Is A Wicked Month", the novella by Edna O'Brien caught my eye the other day when I was looking at my collection of books. In the story, Ellen, a Londoner, went south to Provence in search of sun and sex. The blurb on the book jacket reads "....No writer in English is so good at putting the reader inside the skin of a woman." Very true. Some years back I carried the Country Girl Triology by Edna O'brien with me when I traveled to St. Albert (near Edmonton), Canada, to spend a week with friends. My friend, Sumana, and her husband wanted to show me the Canadian Rockies. We drove to Jasper, made our base in a rustic cottage at Maline and spent a few days driving around the area. Very enjoyable. I remembered that Sumana began reading the book and became completely engrossed in it. By the time we returned to St. Albert she had finished the book. I left it with her.Here in the San Francisco Bay area, August is mostly a pleasant month. Sunny days, the daytime temperature usually hovers under 90° degrees Fahrenheit (32° degrees C); the nights are cool. There are hints that we are halfway past summer....the days are getting shorter; the sun rising later in the morning.The Beach House at Pajaro Dunes ©MusafirAugust is when I join JHL and her family for the annual trip to the coast. We spend a week at Pajaro Dunes. The weather there is unpredictable. One cannot be sure of sun and warm weather but that does not prevent us from enjoying ourselves. The beach house where we stay is only about 50 yards from the Pacific. We walk on the beach, run, read, listen to music, bash Bush and the Republicans, have great meals and good wines. All too soon the week passes and we return to the valley with refreshed spirits, ready to face the end of summer.

*Politicians know more than others which side their bread is buttered. This became evident when Hillary Clinton vigorously defended taking contributions from lobbyists. She was like a virgin without memory. "Core principles", my foot.Covering the Second Annual Kos Convention in Chicago, James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times reported:Clinton said she had to raise money to be competitive and that her 35 years of public service proved she would fight for ordinary Americans. "I have stayed true to my core principles," Clinton said. "A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans" such as nurses, teachers and others who need a voice in the halls of government, she added.Then there are lobbyists who are influenced by other special interest groups. The management of AARP, which wields considerable power as representative of elderly Americans, did not take much persuasion to support the president's Prescription Drug Plan which turned out to be a bonanza for the pharmaceutical and health care industries and does very little for Medicare recipients.*"The interests of business are diametrically opposed to those of the public."---Dollars and Votes - How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracyby Dan Clawson, Alan Neustadtl, and Mark WellerTemple University Press, 1998

*Rupert Murdoch -- the Rupert Murdoch who owns Fox News Channel which is almost like an extension of the White House press office -- is going to be the new owner of the venerable Wall Street Journal.The WSJ has a great stable of reporters who produce excellent articles about subjects not confined to the economy and financial sector. But the WSJ's editorials have been skewed for years to espouse the cause of the champions of free market. If Fox News Channel could be taken as an example, expect WSJ to tilt further right. The editors will be frothing at the mouth to oppose a national health care plan. Drug price regulation? Sacrilegious.And, about Iraq they will be behind the president 100%. How can they not be? If it is good for the arms merchants and contractors like Kellog, Brown & Root (KBR) then it is good for America......and The Wall Street Journal.

* Countless articles will appear about the great Swedish film maker, many by people who are far more knowledgeable than I am. As my tribute to Bergman, I decided to republish what I wrote on March 17, 2006. Bach and Bergman, Not Bush and Bombs A grey and wet St. Patrick's Day morning. The weather pundits were right; rain and more rain. Two days before spring solstice, it is unusual weather for us in the San Francisco Bay area. Couldn't escape reading about the president but decided to stay away from him in my blog. He is mentioned but just in passing....in an item about Jessica Simpson, that she dodged an appearance at The White House. I am not familiar with her music but she looked pretty and wholesome in Washington Post. My favorite music: Bach, jazz, and blues. Recently, I watched a movie (Swedish, with sub-titles) that is not only named Saraband, Bach's cello suite is a part of the story and could be heard in the background. Made for Swedish TV, 86-year old Ingmar Bergman returned as director (he was also the author) for this 2005 sequel to his acclaimed 1973 production Scenes From A Marriage. While I wished that the story ended differently, it was a feast. Bergman announced that Saraband was his last appearance as a director. Magnificent.Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann in Saraband - © Sony Pictures ClassicsJulia Dufvenius and Börje Ahlsted - © Sony Pictures ClassicsIngmar Bergman © Sony Pictures Classics Actors Liv Ullmann Marianne--Lawyer Erland Josephson Johan--Professor Emeritus Borje Ahlstedt Henrik--Professor Julia Dufvenius Karin--Cellist I am listening to Bach's Concerto in C Minor, Allegro, Band III. An old LP titled Two Concertos For Two Harpischords & Orchestra. George Malcolm and Simon Preston conducted by Yehudi Menhuin.

*How does it feel to meet a friend after 38 years? We had been exchanging Christmas greetings and e-mail. On a few occasions we talked on the phone. My friend, Pat, visited Los Angeles a few years ago but I couldn't go there. I was excited about meeting her when she informed me of her plan to visit San Francisco.It is a long way from Calcutta (Kolkata), India, to Perth, West Australia. That is where Pat and her family moved to in 1969. Pat is traveling with a woman friend who lives in Melbourne, Australia. All of us worked together at one time.JHL and I met them in San Francisco on Sunday and took them to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a warm, sunny afternoon. Sail boats dotted the bay. The bridge, as it often happens, was partially shrouded in fog. A breath-taking sight nevertheless for tourists as well as the natives. And they were there in droves. The walkway was crowded with people. Runners on the walkway reminded me of times when I had done that. Then we drove down to Sausalito for lunch at Paradise Cove. In no time at all the intervening years disappeared.We plan to make a trip south to Monterey Bay and Carmel before they take off for Toronto.Returning to the blogosphere after an absence of four days I see that nothing has changed. Majority of Americans are still against continuation of the president's war despite a barrage of warnings about al-Qaeda. The commander-in-chief, of course, is sticking to his position. The good news, if one can call it that, is that so far in July the number of casualties in Iraq -- both civilian and military -- is lower than in previous months. But the month is not over.And the sanctimonious David Vitter, Republican senator from Louisiana, is back. Argh! * Listening to Blues By Muddy Waters: Track 16 - I Be Bound to Write to YouSecond Guitar: Charles Berrry, The Plantation Recordings, The Historical 1941-1942 Library of Congress Field Recordings by Alan Lomax

*And In the domestic front, the Bushies have found the enemy By ruling against President Musharraf in the case about constitutionality of the sacking of chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Pakistan's supreme Court sent a clear signal. It is, of course, a major defeat for General Musharraf who wants to continue military rule in Pakistan. Our government is a strong backer of Musharraf because of his role in the fight against terror. When it comes to such things we pay lip service to democracy and rights of the people. Nothing new about that. * Many of us have been saying the same thing but Keith Olbermann of MSNBC does it better. His scathing indictment of the president and his cohorts in Countdown should be a must read for all who oppose what they have done in Iraq.Excerpts:Go to Iraq and fight, Mr. PresidentIt is one of the great, dark, evil lessons, of history.A country — a government — a military machine — can screw up a war seven ways to Sunday. It can get thousands of its people killed. It can risk the safety of its citizens. It can destroy the fabric of its nation.But as long as it can identify a scapegoat, it can regain or even gain power.The Bush administration has opened this Pandora’s Box about Iraq. It has found its scapegoats: Hillary Clinton and us. * The lies and terror tactics with which it deluded this country into war — they had nothing to do with the abomination that Iraq has become. It isn’t Mr. Bush’s fault.The selection of the wrong war, in the wrong time, in the wrong place — the most disastrous geopolitical tactic since Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia in 1914 and destroyed itself in the process — that had nothing to do with the overwhelming crisis Iraq has become. It isn’t Mr. Bush’s fault. * The continuing, relentless, remorseless, corrupt and cynical insistence that this conflict somehow is defeating or containing or just engaging the people who attacked us on 9/11, the total “Alice Through the Looking Glass” quality that ignores that in Iraq, we have made the world safer for al-Qaida — it isn’t Mr. Bush’s fault! * Sen. Clinton has been sent — and someone has leaked to The Associated Press — a letter, sent in reply to hers asking if there exists an actual plan for evacuating U.S. troops from Iraq.This extraordinary document was written by an undersecretary of defense named Eric Edelman.“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq,” Edelman writes, “reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.” * And now Mr. Bush, you have picked out your own Jefferson Davis, your own Dreyfus, your own “profiteer” — your own scapegoat.Not for the sake of this country.Not for the sake of Iraq.Not even for the sake of your own political party.But for the sake of your own personal place in history. * You have set this government at war against its own people and then blamed those very people when they say, “Enough.” * This, sir, is your war.Sen. Clinton has reinforced enemy propaganda? Made it impossible for you to get your ego-driven, blood-steeped win in Iraq?Then take it into your own hands, Mr. Bush.Go to Baghdad now and fulfill, finally, your military service obligations.Go there and fight, your war. Yourself.

*The juju men are at it again. Their empire is crumbling. The president's support is ebbing away even among his hardcore followers. So the masters of dirty tricks brought out the cash cows -- 9/11 and threat of terrorism -- to recoup lost grounds. Time is running out and they are desperate. The rhetoric has changed. The bravado is missing. No more "Bring them on" (President Bush July 2, 2003) and "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." (VP Cheney June 20, 2005). Now they are ratcheting up the fear factor; if we don't fight them there (in Iraq) we'll be fighting them here in America.The ploy worked in the past and paid them dividends. Following the president's press conference on July 12th, neocons are coming out of the woodworks to stress the threat from al-Qaeda, specifically al-Qaeda in Iraq. Iraq exposed the neocons' lies. It is in Iraq where more than 3900 of our soldiers have lost their lives; many more thousands injured. It is in Iraq that our money is going down a dark hole, billions of it.All of a sudden there are reports from various sources about al-Qaeda's growing strength and plans to hit us in America. The usual suspects have joined in the campaign. Despite all that is known about the lies and deceptions used to take the nation to war some Americans still believe in them, and they will buy it. Maybe it will give the neocons time to cook up something to buttress their position. There is nothing new about the fact that Islamic fundos want to harm America. It is also conceivable that the neocons are hoping for something to happen. There is a strong smell of orchestration in the recent warnings about threats of terrorist attacks. Before they go out kicking and screaming at the end of the Bush presidency they will do everything possible to muzzle dissent and sabotage the growing opposition to their pet war.