October 2004, Week 2

Monday  October 4 , 2004

"For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known."

- Jesus of Nazareth.

Still sick, I can't seem to shake it... I will call for an appointment tomorrow morning...

I made it to Mike's IEP early but everyone was there so we started it right away. Mike was there I had hoped that we could talk without him being present. He has a hard time with reality... at least he has a hard time reconciling his version of reality with that of the people around him. God grant that we could see ourselves as others see us...

One night an 87-year-old woman came home from Bingo to find her 92-year-old husband in bed with another woman. She became violent and ended up pushing him off the balcony of their 20th floor assisted living apartment... killing him instantly.
Brought before the court on charge of murder, the judge asked her if she had anything to say in her defense. She began coolly, Yes, your Honor, I figured that at 92 if he could have sex...he could fly

Tuesday  October 5 , 2004

It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties which make the defense of our nation worthwhile.

Earl Warren, jurist (1891-1974)

No way to get to the Doctor today, I took the kids to school and then came home to trade the van for the car and went to Valencia to pick up Mike so that I could get him to the Dentist to have his crown installed... I took him back to his school and drove to Newbury Park to pick up Christian who has the same thing I have... I made it home in time to be there when the kids got home. The plan is to go out for a pizza. I will go to Kaiser tomorrow.

The VP and the VP wannabe will debate tonight... it should be good.

The Bush spin Doctors and the pundits all say that Edwards got beat up... I watch Chris Mathews last night and even he said Cheney won, after his confrontation with Zell Miller I thought he was a reasonable man,, I was really disappointed in his annalysis of the debate. To my mind the fact that y9u are a convincing liar does not mean you won. I don't think so, if you want to say that the Cheney cheap shot about him never meeting Edwards in the Senate was a deciding blow and discount the 20 or thirty times when Edwards made solid points...

Outsourcing tax collection... they get a cut on what they collect, tax bounty hunters... scary concept... it's in the new tax bill. Bush is pushing it.

Wednesday  October 6 , 2004

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.

Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714)

Christy crossed over into California about 1330... she will be in Riverside at 1630, she will visit with her sister for a while... things are happening over there... Her husband Blaine is confronting some serious medical problems...

Christy got home about 2030... she looks great... so does Cindy

Turns out that Cheney lied about just about everything... I read this afternoon the Chris Mathews has redeemed himself somewhat... he admitted that he was too trusting. Snookered was his word...

This is from MediaMatters for America (Mediamatters.org) (Subscription is free)

Two MSNBC hosts' post-debate analyses explained ... perhaps

http://mediamatters.org/items/200410060009

As a guest on the October 6 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews explained his reaction the previous evening to Vice President Dick Cheney's performance: "I think I got snookered again last night by the guy." As Media Matters for America noted, in contrast with the apparent consensus among commentators on networks other than MSNBC that the debate was a draw, Matthews and other MSNBC panelists -- immediately following the debate -- declared Cheney the undisputed victor.

Today, new insights shed light on the outlier reactions of two of MSNBC's pundits to last night's debate.

Matthews explained during his appearance on Imus that, while he continued to think that Cheney won, his analysis was based on Cheney's "brilliant cosmetics," which gave him the appearance of a "very moderate, middle-of-the-road Washington type ... when in fact he is a hawk." Matthews also noted the distortions and fabrications by Cheney during the debate -- and the administration, more generally -- in their efforts to justify the invasion of Iraq.

From the October 6 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:

MATTHEWS: Well, look, I've watched [Vice President Dick] Cheney for about 25 years now, and I think I got snookered again last night by the guy. He has this very moderate manner. It's a different kind of cosmetics. I mean, you look at Edwards, you say, oh, he's good looking, got his hair, nice face, looks about 38. But that's one kind of cosmetics. The other kind of cosmetics is the guy who manages to make himself look like a moderate, reasonable, with no real ideology, no weird quirks, paranoia or anything. Cheney is a hawk. Given any option, he'll be the hawk. He's got an itchy trigger finger in this sense politically. He'll always go for the worst-case option, I'm sure his people will tell you that. He always wants to say, they're out to get us, we're going to nail them before they nail us. This was true all the way back to Grenada in '83, he's been like that. If there's any sign of possible trouble, "We're going to kill those people." Yet, he doesn't look like a guy with an itchy trigger finger. He looks like a very moderate, middle-of-the-road Washington type, the button-down shirt, the calm manner, everything about himself says trust me, I'm calm, I'm a moderate man, when in fact he is a hawk. This war hasn't been justified yet.

Last night, I got the sense, no WMD was even mentioned, the nuclear piece is totally made up, the connection to 9-11 -- it was so great that [NBC anchor] Brian Williams and his producers dug up the tape to prove that Cheney wasn't telling the truth. There was no evidence of a reason for war.

MATTHEWS: I thought Cheney won the debate, I don't know how you could see it any other way, but again it's brilliant cosmetics. He looks like a reasonable man. He's a man of the right, and everybody gets this wrong, and I don't expect the voters to get it right either because Cheney is such a good imitator of a moderate man. ... Cheney's a heavyweight who's not only smart, he's able to present himself in a way that he's not. He's really good.

Meanwhile, Salon.com's Eric Boehlert wrote in an October 6 article that MSNBC Scarborough Country host Joe Scarborough -- who declared immediately after the debate, "Edwards got obliterated by Dick Cheney" -- was perhaps "trying to appease his right-wing fans who, [as Scarborough] later remarked, flayed him alive for giving the debate to Kerry last week."

(God forbid his audience should allow him to have his own opinion...pete)

Thursday  October 7 , 2004

He had a feeling that the answer was quite different and that he ought to know it, but he could not think of it. He began to get frightened, and that is bad for thinking."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

It is bewildering to me that when it was revealed that Clinton lied about having a dalliance with a 21 year old intern, Republicans rose up in indignant fury... but when it is revealed that thousands and thousands of people died because Bush lied, there isn't one Republican voice speaking out in censure... there is not one pious Republican ideologue that even seems to give a damn. People have died and are still dying and the only ones speaking out are people like me.

Why isn't Kerry saying. "You lied to us! You lied to me! I voted to give you the right to go to war because I believed your lies. I don't give a damn whether or not you believed you were right... you weren't, you are the President of the United States of America you should have been sure, you should have listened to the people who were trying to tell you you were wrong. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary you are still clinging to the illusion and you are still claiming to be right what is wrong with you! You were wrong! People are dying! Your lies are still killing people.

Christy taught till 1300 today. I went to the Doctor, at least I don't have Pneumonia, but she gave me some medicine to help with my breathing and an antibiotic... I registered Cindy at the High School, she will start tomorrow.

Friday  October 8 , 2004

laugh about it shout about it/ when you've got to choose/ every way you look at it you lose. Coo coo ca-choo.

Simon & Garfunkel

Mike and "B" had a minimum day, I still feel sick... Christy is still pretty tired from her drive, she had to teach yesterday  and that was a bit much.

Saturday  October 9 , 2004

Rose: I've never told a lie... Well just once when I snuck out of class to go to the movies.
Dorothy: That's not much of a lie.
Rose: That's what I thought. It turned out to be the day they taught everything!
Dorothy: The final piece of the puzzle.

Betty White & Bea Arthur on Golden Girls
 

I slept till about 0930,,, I haven't slept that long in a long time what's annoying is that I'm still tired... I did nothing today... not a damn thing... As Betty White used to say; "I'm so ashamed" imagine me shaking my head and smiling...

Sunday  October 10 , 2004

A very elderly gentleman, very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well looked after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge.

Seated at the bar is a very nice looking elderly looking lady.

The gentleman walks over, sits along side of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says: "So tell me, do I come here often?"

My teams lost today... Seahawks threw their game away when they blew a 17 point lead and lost in overtime... Packers play tomorrow night...

Shooting the Messenger Doesn't Discredit the Message

The Real Lt. Col. Burkett - in His Own Words to BBC Television

by Greg Palast

Tuesday October 5, 2004

When Dan Rather went down for airing a document he couldn't source, he did the courageous thing: blamed someone else.

In this case, Rather and CBS loaded their corporate guilt on a guy you've probably never heard of before, rancher Bill Burkett of Abilene, a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Texas Air National Guard.

CBS did a no-no -- used a document on air without fully checking out its source. No excuses. Shouldn't have done it. They got the document from Burkett.

Once CBS hung out its source and painted a target on him, Rove-ing gangs of media hit men finished him off. Burkett's an evidence "fabricator," "Bush-hater," and even, suggests William Safire in the New York Times as he fantasizes a dark left-wing conspiracy, a felon ready for hard time.

Let me tell you about this Burkett "criminal." I met him while filming for BBC's Television documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes." Better than that, I'm posting a transcript of our hour-and-a-half interview.

Burkett a 'Bush-hater'? "George W. Bush was an excellent pilot," Burkett told me, "He had the right leadership skills, he had the 'Top Gun' approach."

But I didn't go interview Burkett to chat about our President's days when he flew high. He has an important story to tell which has not one damn thing to do with a memo by some Lt. Col. Killian. It has to do with a phone call and a shredder.

Burkett, a top advisor to Major General Daniel James at the Air Guard, was working at Camp Mabry with Major General James when a call came in from Joe Allbaugh, the Chief of Staff to then-Governor George W. Bush. Bush was about to get a political polishing up for his White House run, with a ghost-written autobiography, which would include his heroic years during the war in Vietnam. Allbaugh, according to Burkett, stated that Bush political operatives Karen Hughes and Dan Bartlett would be dropping by the Air Guard offices to look at the war record and wanted to, "make sure there's nothing in there that'll embarrass the Governor."

According to Burkett, the General and his minions who work for the Governor, not the US Air Force, took this as an unsubtle hint from the boss to purge the record. Lt. Col. Burkett, both curious and disturbed by the call, wondered how his fellow comrades-in-arms would respond. His answer was in the trash-to-be-shredded bin: George Bush's military pay records. "I saw what are called LES (Leave and Earnings Statements) which are pay documents. I saw Retirement Points documents and other administrative information."

He did not see their content, only Bush's name, and therefore cannot answer the 64 million dollar question: Did those records, now "missing," indicate that our President went AWOL while others ended up on the Black Wall?

That's Burkett's story and it's in the BBC film. Watch the film, read the transcript, and judge for yourself. I think you'll find in Burkett a straight shooter, telling a piece of the larger draft-dodge story which mounting evidence corroborates.

So what about that "Killian" document? We don't have it in the BBC film - we couldn't source it so we wouldn't use it. Burkett passed it on from a third party, obviously someone still in the Guard or fearful of Bush Family retribution. Now why would they imagine that?

Under pressure, Burkett gave CBS a false name to cover for the whistleblower. Burkett should not have done that. It is inexcusable. Period. Yet, that does not tell us the document was fabricated. It was the job of CBS to follow up -- they are the journalists.

And it is also the President's job. Safire in the Times, in charging that Burkett faked the document, demanded the military open a criminal investigation. Darn right they should. They haven't. Why not? Maybe they don't want to check into this 'fake' document because maybe it's not fake.

An investigation should begin with questions for the President. After all, he can clear up the matter lickety-split.

"Mr. President, did you or did you not ask your commander Lt. Col. Killian how you could shirk your duty to show up?"

"Mr. President, did you or did you not refuse a direct order to take a medical exam and pee into a jar?" (The record is solid on the evidence of refusing that order, Mr. Top Gun -- you were stripped of your flight wings.)

"Mr. President, did Texas Lt. Governor Ben Barnes make any calls to get you out of 'Nam and into the Air Guard? Yes or no?"

See Dan, that's how it should be done. It wasn't Burkett's job to verify the evidence, it was the job of Dan and the President.

It is for the President, not Bill Burkett, to answer the question, "Did your daddy the congressman vote to send other men's sons to Vietnam while pulling the strings to keep you cozy and safe? Yes or no, Mr. President, yes or no?"