Book Review - Harry Taylor: "You Can't Get There From Here"

The political ground seemed to shake when Harry Taylor, a commercial real estate broker, got up at an April 6, 2006 town hall meeting at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C. and spoke his mind to President George W. Bush. Taylor criticized Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and U.S. treatment of enemy combatants, among other actions, and he asked that Bush express some manner of shame for his actions. Taylor's confrontation made headlines in the U.S. and around the world. It seemed a rarity that such a statement and question would get through in those days, given the prevalence of such opinions being silenced at Bush town hall meetings; such dissenters being blacklisted and barred from the town hall gatherings. A video of Taylor’s question can be seen here:




In his new book, “You Can’t Get There From Here – ( How Gerrymandering and the Absence of Voter-Owned Elections and Term Limits Are Destroying Democracy )”, Taylor describes the feelings that arose in him as he walked into that town hall meeting determined to confront the President, although he’d not yet worked out exactly what to say. He basically confirms what any one of us might imagine. It felt like a David v. Goliath moment for Taylor, yet he felt so strongly about the issues he raised that he could no longer remain silent about them. He uses a favorite quote from Martin Luther King Jr., “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” After the public cheered him on for his courageous confrontation with George W. Bush, showing their support by creating and contributing to a “Thank You, Harry Taylor” website, Taylor decided that he would not let the awakening moment go wasted, but instead to build upon the momentum for the sake of furthering the issues he’d cared so much about for decades as a political activist. In his words,

“I care about my country and community, and I care about the people with whom I share those. I care about what the United States can be and should be, and I realized then that, given favorable circumstances, I could be a catalyst to change the dangerous direction in which we were headed. I’d done it once. Maybe I could do it again!” (page 27)

He decided to challenge longtime incumbent Sue Myrick for her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in District 9 in North Carolina. What Taylor learned in the following months was a hard-won lesson in politics, particularly regarding the state of our fragile democracy. He not only wants to share that lesson with all of us, but he also wishes to educate us on how we can best act to bring change to the way our election system currently fails to serve our best common interests and threatens the future of democracy in the United States.

Harry Taylor's first challenge to running would become apparent immediately upon inquiring how he’d begin to challenge the incumbent in his district. In a conversation he had with a party chairperson upon asking who they planned to run against Sue Myrick, Taylor was told,

“We have no plans. That district is gerrymandered, a Republican ‘safe-seat.’ It isn’t winnable. Whoever wants to run against her can run. It really doesn’t matter.” Taylor reflects, “My reaction? What the hell kind of country and democracy is this?” (page 30)

Taylor’s race for a seat in U.S. Congress would come to involve running as a Democrat after many years of being an Independent; it would involve facing a tough Primary campaign, and it would involve sometimes uncomfortable, surprising, and disappointing experiences in raising competitive campaign funds. It would involve incredibly frustrating moments of realizing that winning a race against an entrenched incumbent in a gerrymandered district is nearly impossible, not only in Taylor’s district, but all around the country. He fought hard and gave his heart for every vote he received against Sue Myrick, the incumbent horse that everyone else – media, political insiders, even Democratic establishments that stood to make or break his potential to win - seemed to be betting on! The reason they bet on the incumbent was because the odds are so firmly and deeply stacked against any challenger that few had even seriously tried in the past. Taylor says,

“Again and again I would hear that I couldn’t win because the Republican party “owned” the territory.” (page 85)

Taylor couldn’t make it clearer. Whether it’s an individual district mapped out in favor of Republicans or Democrats, the game is rigged. “Democracy” seems not to be a value to today’s political players and state legislatures, but instead “democracy” is a game to be played - with us voters as the pawns. As I read about this, I thought about how disappointing and frustrating this all must have seemed for Harry Taylor, one honest, intelligent, and caring small business owner who sincerely wished to solemnly and responsibly represent his community. This was an uphill battle, an insurmountable gate protected by those who control the elections through so many of their own legal mechanisms that it keeps citizens like you and me from getting to Washington, D.C. Being the ever-elusive change we want to see will never happen until we change the way our elections are run and funded. I believe that every American citizen should read this book. As an engaged citizen myself, I’ve seen people spin their wheels trying to make their country work for everyone, yet it seems to be working for only a few these days. I was impressed by Taylor’s statement that, because the small details on these issues can seem so boring at times, it can be difficult to get sufficient interest raised in citizens to commit to a long fight against gerrymandering and to get them to commit to supporting voter-owned elections and legislation for term limits - - yet these must have lasting citizen support or we will not be able to save the promise of democracy that is worthy of our “grand experiment.” I’ll let Harry Taylor’s own words take us to the end of my review:

“We Americans have tremendous pride in our perceived democracy. Many find it acceptable to go to war, to kill, to destroy in order to prove our commitment to this grand experiment, this democracy. But it has evolved into a democracy in name only, and “self-governing” is but a wistful dream. In truth – every day – we move closer to plutocracy or oligarchy where our country is ruled by the wealthy, where money is king, and where power comes only from wealth, governed by the few at the expense of the many. Those who want to privatize our democracy, and thus carve the citizen’s place out of the pie, are becoming stronger and bolder, more ruthless and less caring. History has shown – for thousands of years – that concentrated power becomes ever more corrupt, selfish, impatient, detached, and callous. None of those attributes were intended to be part of our democracy. It is up to us to obstruct that repressive and smothering trend - before it’s too late to turn back!” (page 144)

Martin Luther King 1929-1968

"Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."


Turning my thoughts to Martin Luther King:

[Listen to] "I Have a Dream" speech - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

[Listen to] "We Must Work" - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

[Listen to] "We Shall Overcome" Jun 17 1966 – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Listen to] "I've Been to the Mountain Top April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

BOOK REVIEW: "Pity the Billionaire" by Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank has written an informative and interesting book with keen insight into the unlikely and unexpected comeback of the Right after the election of Barack Obama. I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you about the book, "Pity the Billionaire: The Hard Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right." In many ways, the book has helped me, after asking myself again and again, "How could this have happened to us?", to understand exactly how this could have happened (and did happen) to us.


Our promised bridge to the 21st century was detoured by eight years of George W. Bush who, with his rubber-stamping GOP, brought our country to its economic knees. 2008 brought us a new Democratic president and here came the Right to block our bridge yet again. This time the old forces of the Right worked together diligently to bring us the Tea Party - their next stage of evolution. (Don’t tell them I 've mentioned the word "evolution” !)

As I look back on the days following the 2008 Presidential election, I thought I was paying pretty close attention - and in many ways, I was paying attention. The question I ask myself is: Should I have been paying closer attention to those who have likely never seen eye-to-eye with me - and should I have been more vigilant about the information being fed to them by the usual Right-wing suspects? I've been a participant in public political forums for well over a decade, mostly internet-based. In the beginning, I debated citizens from across the political spectrum. Eventually, I realized I was talking to a major brick wall that they'd built for self-defense against any plea for common sense. This time, the Tea Party hasn't shown me that they are any different. They've only drawn around themselves more narrow borders with their insistence upon a purity in politics that could only exist in a fantasy world. I have faith that most citizens today, even those who associate themselves with Conservatism, are beginning to realize that sticking out a fantasy will never be productive for the good of our country and maybe that's why we see such a major decline of the party's influence today with Republican primary voters flocking to a moderate candidate.

A quote I recently read by 20th century liberal activist Dudley Field Malone, who'd joined with Clarence Darrow to defend John T. Scopes in the famous "Monkey Trial" in 1925, goes like this: “ I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me.” Mr. Malone surely learned about human nature from those who failed to agree with him in his time! Once more, as in Malone’s day, we seem to be dealing with powerful forces of no reason; all bloviation; all reaction. We haven't related to one another in a culture where only ideological purity is acceptable and minds are closed to anyone who'd wish to inject individual conscience into public discussion. Going off-script is verboten. I'm afraid, as historians look back upon the current period of time in America, that they will clearly see that we'd learned nothing from one another and that a larger group of citizens who cared about their country's direction were ignored; silenced by an extremely loud echo-chamber amplified by moneyed voices championing empty values and one-sided, narrow-minded utopian goals. The internet has been a blessing, but it's had its dark side, too. Today's internet, Thomas Frank says, "provides a huge playground for self-segregation" where "those who don't follow the rules are 'trolls'. He calls the condition where these separate worlds, each with only like-minded people meeting and discussing the issues of the day "the culture of closure ". This culture has given rise to non-factual conventional wisdom such as the notion of "the Liberal media", creating a space in the market for a Conservative media that is almost able to get away with boldly boasting about their "fairness and balance" (with Media Matters and other fact-checkers keeping it real for those who still care about journalistic integrity).

We see our Congress failing to work and their public poll ratings lower than ever due to traditional expectations (that they actually might work together) colliding with new realities (that they likely never will unless "the culture of closure" is changed somehow). We don't listen to one another anymore, from the average citizen to the screaming, dueling pundits to the leaders in Congress. Worse, since January of 2010 with the U.S. Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision, the People suddenly are not all actually people, but by law are also corporations, whose shadow-funders can afford a lot more money (otherwise known as "speech") to influence politics - and cynically so - than any one human being ever could. For the future of the health and integrity of democracy, I can only think of two words: "Epic fail."

Thomas Frank, author
Despite the vision of a nation and government that President Abraham Lincoln told us was of the People and for the People and by the People, it seemed that an altogether new and rather twisted principle and process for finding public consensus about our common democratic values was taking root in 2009. It was under such a misguiding star that Fox News, Glenn Beck, the Koch brothers, Richard A. Viguerie (sometimes referred to as "the funding father of Conservative strategy), Dick Armey, and others gave birth to what I see as one of the most nonsensical (while incredibly successful) political movements in U.S. history. I remember watching the news while on vacation in Florida in March of 2009 and seeing my first news story about a Tea Party rally held in Orlando, Florida. I have to admit that I rolled my eyes when I heard their bullhorn protests and saw their sea of older white faces, their silly signs and I thought to myself, "Nah. This won't be taken seriously." (Note: Mr. Frank focuses on economic arguments in his book, but the element of race is something that I keep revisiting in my mind when I remember the first days of the Tea Party.) Swiftly crafting a hard-times populist theme based, amazingly, on many examples Mr. Frank gives in one chapter of ideas and tactics used by purveyors of Communist thought in past decades, the Right was able to beat the Occupy Wall Street movement to the populist punch by many months; perhaps too many months for the damage done by the newest Right to be mitigated.

I've often felt that the only reason the movement was able to catch on and find success is due to the fact that the Right was bruised by years of Bush-bashing (deserved or not). I believe that the public had become so opinion-segregated by media culture, both mainstream and alternative media, and leaders so swayed by dirty money in politics, that there was no room left for any differences in ideas and little chance that the differences, if presented, would ever have a chance to live themselves out and be developed in a media culture that only seems to acknowledge the all-too-convenient simplicity of Left and Right. There are fewer people today who honestly believe there are more than two sides to a political argument. Why would they think otherwise, when all they see and hear is made partisan, not for their benefit, but for the purpose of controversy that is attention-grabbing enough to generate some really great corporate profits?

Thomas Frank points out that, while people like me undoubtedly believed that the Crash of '08 should naturally have kick-started the hard-times scenario of Depression-era populism and that President Obama should surely have been seen as the ideal leader for the moment, forces out there like oil baron Charles Koch were working hard (and paying plenty) to ensure there would be a public voice against making "the same mistakes" that were made our ancestors (“mistakes” such as installing new regulations, creating public works programs and new government agencies). Thomas Frank said, in a recent interview, that he believes what he calls "'the AIG moment' (when the bailed-out insurance behemoth used taxpayer relief to dole out huge bonuses to its executives) was in some ways the high point of the crisis, when (the politics) could have gone either way." Angry with Obama’s style of bail-outs, citizens who had the tendency to lean right were convinced by clever political manipulators, to rail against what many of us would see as reason. They believed that Capitalism was under siege; Liberty was disappearing; Prosperity was shrinking. The new Tea Party's stubborn world/nation views and purist politics were anything but new. They only found a new twist at an opportune time. It didn't help the cause of those who associated themselves with Progressives that the message promoted by those on the Right who sought to fan the flames of discontent after the big bailouts was that the lords of Wall Street owned the government. The news of post-bailout bonuses by Wall Street to their employees only added fuel to the Tea Party fire and disappointed and stymied the Left. The perception of President Obama's acceptance of cronyism a la Hoover in the bailout process was not helpful to raising any voice of support from the left, either. Yet, in a political atmosphere where citizens are not given a lot of credit for their attention span, some Democratic leaders may have bet wrong when they thought "this, too, shall pass." For most citizens, the ire over all of this had died down after a while, but not so with the Tea Party and their leaders. They held on to this anti-government sentiment and took a direction that, when considered by a rational human being considering traditional common American values, made little sense. How on earth did they become a movement that, in Mr. Frank's words, "was an uprising against government and taxes and federal directives - in others words it was now a movement in favor of the very conditions that has allowed Wall Street to loot the world. In fact, nearly every aspect of the culture responsible for the collapse -- from deregulation to Ayn Rand's novels -- quickly became the subject of roaring enthusiasm."

In a chapter devoted to the surrounding the unlikely resurgence in popularity of Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged", Mr. Frank asks, "What kind of misapprehension permits the newest Right to brush off truths that everyone else can see so plainly? What backfiring form of cognition convinces them that Ayn Rand is the hero rather than the villain of the present disaster?" A great question. It's been downright strange for me to have heard the Tea Party leaders decrying national laws and protections that historically had supported our civic virtues and universally-held human values. Here we were, our nation experiencing a legitimacy crisis with markets disintegrating, layoffs mounting, and foreclosures destabilizing Main Street. We expected, based on all we've come to know as traditionally American based on the calling of good conscience, to see wrongdoers punished, the weak to be rescued, and measures put in place to try to avoid a repeat of the economic breakdown. So what happened?

Read Thomas Frank's book and you'll find out. From his history of the 1930s economic catastrophe contrasted with the very different citizen-backlash of the Tea Party to the source of the philosophical guidance from Conservative leaders who claimed to speak for a recession-battered people while the Obama administration was slow to put themselves at the forefront of populist anger against Wall Street, I think you'll better understand how this could have happened to us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read Chapter One at The Guardian

See interview with Chris Hayes of MSNBC

'Unelected & Unaccountable'

Unelected and Unaccountable

The Devil's In the Details

The Devil's In the Details

The Dismissal of Romney - 1860 & 2011

"99 percent" - TONY B. CONSCIOUS

Live Today: Clinton Global Initiative America to Focus on Job Creation & Economic Growth

At 1pm today EDT, President Bill Clinton will open CGI America. More than 700 leaders from businesses, nonprofits, and all levels of government will participate in the two-day meeting, which is the first Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) event to focus EXCLUSIVELY on driving job creation and economic growth in the United States.

Twitter: Follow @ClintonGlobal http://twitter.com/clintonglobal for meeting news and highlights. The event hash-tag is #CGIAmerica.

Live Webcast: All CGI America plenary sessions will be webcast at http://live.cgiamerica.org/

Photos: Photos from the meeting will be available on CGI’s Flickr account at http://www.cgiamerica.org/flickr

Facebook: Highlights, news, and photos from CGI America will be shared on the CGI Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative

cgi_plenary on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

"The Honored Dead" by Joseph Braude

"The Honored Dead" by Joseph Braude comes out today. It's the true story of a man named Muhammad who lost his best friend, a homeless man in Casablanca named Ibrahim, to violent death and couldn’t go on until he learned the reasons why. The author's drawn into the mystery. As they draw closer to secrets behind the crime, assumptions about friendship and their own lives began to unravel.

The author's own words about his new book:

"I’d like to tell you about my new book, The Honored Dead.

It’s about a murder in the Arab world. It’s about the Arab detectives who cracked the case. It’s about why the murder happened, and why the police tried to cover it up. And it’s about the culture and politics of North Africa and the Middle East that formed the backdrop to the killing.

But at the heart of the book is the story of a man who lost his best friend and couldn’t go on with his life until he learned the reasons why.

I met him a few years ago when I was embedded, as a journalist, with a police precinct in an underclass section of Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco. I was there to get a street-level glimpse of an Arab security service and its strained relationship with the people it controls. Though the language and customs were different, in many ways what I found was much like life in the American inner city: poor families struggling to survive, young people trapped in a cycle of stark choices, and the global scourge of drugs and crime.

The remarkable man I met there is Muhammad Bari – unemployed, 57 or so, with a wife, eight kids, and some cats. Every morning after prayers in the local mosque, he used to meet up with his best friend, a homeless man named Ibrahim Dey. They would pass the time together in a rundown coffeehouse, watching Al-Jazeera and talking about anything and everything. One night, Ibrahim Dey was killed – beaten to death with a stick, in the warehouse where he had been sleeping for the past five years.

The cops told Bari it was a common homicide, a robbery gone wrong. They told me the same thing. But Bari didn’t believe it. He said he was sure there must be a dark conspiracy behind the crime, involving terrorists, drug cartels, or both. I wasn’t sure what to make of his theory at first, but something about Muhammad Bari and his sadness touched me deeply, whether what he believed made sense or not. Maybe I was moved because I had once lost my best friend too. Maybe I was ready to entertain the idea of a conspiracy because, back when I worked on counterterrorism cases for the FBI, I learned some dark secrets myself.

Muhammad Bari wanted to reinvestigate the crime, right under the noses of the Moroccan police, braving the authoritarian system he had learned to fear since he was a child. He felt it was the only way he could hope to regain his peace of mind, and the best way he could imagine to honor the memory of his friend. His plan was daring and revolutionary in a part of the world where state secrets are viciously guarded. It seemed like a sign that change might be stirring in North Africa.

Bari knew his plan would put him in jeopardy. He wanted me to help.

As we drew closer to the secret behind the crime, our assumptions about friendship and our own lives began to unravel."

~ Joseph Braude

Spring Flowers [Photo Slideshow]

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Camillus NY Memorial Day Parade [Slideshow]

Skaneateles, NY [my photo slideshow]

"Peace" by Sara Teasdale

Morning Meditation

artistic credit: Rural Colors, Music by Jannick Schou

Nicholas Kristof Speaks at Syracuse University, Warns of Likely Violence and Brutality in Sudan

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University last night to talk about some of the topics he has discussed in his book "Half the Sky", written with his wife and partner-in-journalism, Sheryl WuDunn.


He started his talk, much of it about weighty topics such as global poverty and the plight of exploited women around the world, with a light touch. Speaking about the contest he runs at the NY Times annually, choosing a college student to accompany him on his travels, the Harvard-educated, Rhodes scholar, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner said, "One thing you should realize is that, within the New York Times, behind my back, the story goes that First prize is one trip with me; Second prize is two trips with me. Be careful what you wish for."

The audience at Hendricks Chapel


He went on to talk about a brave nomadic woman who gave birth in the desert and developed a fistula, having been perceived as something evil and isolated from her fellow villagers, left to fend off hyenas and make her own way to a hospital where she was given care and an opportunity to eventually become a nurse and care for others.


He showed the audience a photo of a young woman named Long Pross, of whom he spoke glowingly as a heroine in a story of her enslavement in sex-trafficking in Cambodia and the gouging out of her eye by her captor when she would not cooperate with her own exploitation. Today she works with the Somaly Mam Foundation to raise awareness of a cruel and continuing modern-day slavery.




Mr. Kristof took a good number of questions, but the one in which Mr. Kristof's reply was most memorable for me was the one where an audience member, who'd met Mr. Kristof in Darfur, asked him to try to tie in the upcoming referendum in southern Sudan and how it might play into international politics.


This was Mr. Kristof's reply:

If you think about things around the world that may go badly wrong over the next six months or so, what might be the bloodiest war in 2011, it may very well be a bloody war between north and south Sudan.


The situation there is that north and south Sudan had a terrible war that went on for twenty years and ended in 2005 after two million deaths. Under the terms of a peace agreement, south Sudan was given a right to have a vote, a referendum to secede from the rest of Sudan.


That vote will happen on January 9, 2011.


It is overwhelmingly clear that southern Sudan will vote to secede. The problem is: it's hard to imagine the north will allow the south to leave, because the south has most of the country's oil, about 80% of the oil. So there is a fairly widespread expectation that, in one way or another, the north will block that vote, block that referendum, frustrate that, not let that happen, and that in that case the south will declare a declaration of independence and have renewed fighting.


If you think Darfur was bad [with 2 million dead], you could quickly have a level of killing and a level of brutality that makes Darfur look just like a prologue.


What has been so frustrating about this is that we've known, for years now, that this referendum was coming up. There are ways we could have worked internationally with other countries, and it's not just the United States' role, it was all countries that needed to do that.


And nobody really did.


I believe the Obama administration was not aggressive in holding Sudan's feet to the fire until very recently - until a month ago. About a month ago the administration got very, very active and has been doing a lot of last-minute diplomacy. I think that helps, but I'm afraid it may have been "too little, too late."


I think there are things we could do that would minimize the risk of war. They're going to have to involve working with other countries. I fear they're not going to happen and I fear there is going to be a really brutal new war in north and south Sudan in the coming months.

See: "Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold" by Nicholas Kristof - NY Times, Sept 29, 2010



* Mr. Kristof and Ms. WuDunn have also written two previous books, both about Asia: Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia and China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.


Want to become active?


Half the Sky Movement - how to become involved


"How to Change the World" by Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, October 20, 2010



Groups in the Syracuse area:


- She's the First (at Facebook)


- She's The First (blog)


- Dining For Women (at Facebook)


- Dining For Women (Skaneateles Chapter)


- Dining For Women (Ithaca Chapter)

On An Autumn Afternoon [video]

Autumn is such a lovely time of year. I created this video today, using footage from a walk I took yesterday. ♥ Enjoy!

Film/Music Premiere: 33 Miners (Mision Cumplida Chile)

I put together this film with scenes from the Chile mine rescue, set to music created in honor of the event by Woodrow Williams.

An original song written by Woodrow Williams, dedicated to the 33 miners of Chile and the people who rescued them.

33 Miners (Mission Completed Chile) [English translation]
A song and poem by Woodrow Williams
Film by Jude Nagurney Camwell

33 miners lost underground
All hope lost in the Chilean town
Loved ones and members of their little town
would not give up until they were found

so they started to dig
until they were found

They dug and they dug
they hoped and they prayed
they found the miners
two months in the grave

then one by one they rose from the ground
spirits they raised - spirits around
and the world joined in and they helped where they could
spirits they rise for the better and good of mankind

33 miners lost underground
now join their families above the ground
and the world rejoices for the lives that they found
and everyone loves along with our small Chilean town.

_____________________

Robert C. Byrd Spoke With Clarity Through Fog of Post-9/11 Days

"Truth has a way of asserting itself
despite all attempts to obscure it."
~ Senator Robert C. Byrd

Senator Robert C. Byrd was one of my heroes in the dark days of post 9/11 Bush-led America. I chronicled his words as I blogged from day to day at Iddybud. I'm sad to hear he has passed away and wanted to share some of the lines of his that I heard clearly when so many of my leaders seemed to be speaking in vague, cowed whispers. Senator Byrd gave us far more than whispers. Thank you, Senator Byrd. May you rest in peace.



From "We Stand Passively Mute" - by US Senator Robert Byrd - Senate Floor Remarks on February 12, 2003:

"..To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war. Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war..."

"...war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country"..."



From The Truth Will Emerge - by US Senator Robert Byrd, Senate Floor Remarks - May 21, 2003:

"'Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, - -
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers.'

"...Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the world?"

"...Democracy and Freedom cannot be force fed at the point of an occupier's gun. To think otherwise is folly. One has to stop and ponder. How could we have been so impossibly naive?"

"..I contend that, through it all, the people know. The American people unfortunately are used to political shading, spin, and the usual chicanery they hear from public officials. They patiently tolerate it up to a point. But there is a line. It may seem to be drawn in invisible ink for a time, but eventually it will appear in dark colors, tinged with anger. When it comes to shedding American blood - - when it comes to wreaking havoc on civilians, on innocent men, women, and children, callous dissembling is not acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie - - not oil, not revenge, not reelection, not somebody's grand pipedream of a democratic domino theory.

And mark my words, the calculated intimidation which we see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall."


From "The Road to Coverup is the Road to Ruin" by Sen. Robert C. Byrd - US Senate Floor Remarks - June 24, 2003

My Note - Senator Byrd had a way with words. I loved the use of the word "massaged" in this part of Senator Byrd's speech. It was quite colorful. [Iddybud blog]

"..Whether or not intelligence reports were bent, stretched, or massaged to make Iraq look like an imminent threat to the United States, it is clear that the Administration's rhetoric played upon the well-founded fear of the American public about future acts of terrorism. But, upon close examination, many of these statements have nothing to do with intelligence, because they are at root just sound bites based on conjecture. They are designed to prey on public fear."


From A Nation with Questions - by Robert C. Byrd, September 29, 2003

"..The Bush Administration's single-minded focus on Iraq has ignored, in large respect, the terrorist threat that produced the attack of September 11, 2001."



From The Emperor Has No Clothes by US Senator Robert Byrd - Senate Floor Remarks on October 17, 2003:

"...the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has cowed members of this Senate to come to an end."



From - Senator Robert C. Byrd's remarks, delivered in the Senate on April 17, 2007:


"...I was quite surprised recently to hear some Senators take the position that this body is wasting its time in drafting and passing legislation which the president threatens to veto. Let me remind all who listen that the Congress legislates for the people, and has a Constitutional obligation to act independently from the White House. As Senators already know, there are three separate but equal branches of government.

The Constitution's Framers never considered a president to be the final arbiter of the public good. Whether the question relates to military, foreign, or domestic affairs a presidential veto threat is not the last word in what should become the law of our land. Those decisions are left to the representatives of the people, along with the power over the purse and other Constitutionally enumerated congressional powers.."

"Let the President issue his veto threats, but also let the Congress dutifully represent the will of the people."

"Members of Congress are elected to make laws based on sound public policy, not to capitulate to presidential threats. The Senate must never become a rubberstamp for any president."

"...members of Congress and officials of the Executive Branch have a duty to try to find common ground, especially when the issue is a violent and controversial war, with our troops in harms way every day. I shall hope for a more reasonable and more realistic tone from our President in the coming days. More light and less heat on this matter would truly be in the best interests of our troops and of our sorely divided country."



From Unprepared for Peace in Iraq - By Robert C. Byrd
Thursday, January 15, 2009 [Washington Post]: Also posted at: [Iddybud blog]

"...A hallmark of true leadership is the ability to admit when one is wrong and to learn from errors. Candidate George W. Bush spoke about the need for humility from a great and powerful nation. He said, "Let us reject the blinders of isolationism, just as we refuse the crown of empire. Let us not dominate others with our power -- or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness." It is time for the Bush administration to swallow its false pride and return to that philosophy of humility before it is too late."

RIP, Dennis Hopper (reciting Kipling)

The late Dennis Hopper when he appeared on "The Johnny Cash Show," September 30, 1970. As Mr. Hopper points out prior to the reading of the Rudyard Kipling poem, "If" is the middle word in life.



*tip of the hat to Fung-Lin Hall.

Iddybud's Connections [Pearltree]