Date

Pat Tillman: Who's sorry now?

barbara — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:34:15 -0500

barbara writes

What’s the first thing that crosses your mind when BushCo or BushCo’s military holds a press conference?

The first thing that crosses my mind is, “What’s the cover-up du jour? What is fact and what is fiction? Who’s lying now?”

Case in point, the unfolding Pat Tillman story. Brief summary. Tillman was shot dead in Afghanistan. First we were told he was brought down by enemy fire, and he was awarded the silver star for bravery. But no, it later emerged he was killed by “friendly fire.” And more recently, there have been questions about whether that shooting was an accident.

We were told yesterday that the Army has censured a general for “a perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership” surrounding Tillman’s death in 2004. In case you’re counting, that was three years ago. And what comes to mind immediately is that said general (Philip Kensinger) is the latest in a series of BushGoats. It’s not so much about doubt that he was a crappy leader. But the way this is playing out, Kensinger is being painted as the Lone Villain in the piece.

You know, you have to wonder what would have happened if the Tillman family had not held the Army’s feet to the fire about the circumstances of Pat’s death. Which leads you to wonder how much is happening in the BushCave that is as yet unknown and may never be. Yeah, I know. Click for more.

London Bridge is Falling Down

susan — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:34:31 -0500

No, it's Minneapolis. And it's not the bridge in this photo -- but it's close.
As you know by now, an entire interstate highway bridge has fallen down in the heart of Minneapolis. This is huge. It lacks the elegance of the Golden Gate, but it's a major taken-for-granted bridge that we all breeze across, or ride under, frequently. A little more.

Trouble over bridged waters

barbara — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:14:47 -0500

barbara writes

Last night, by the time I stopped reading and watching about the horrifying bridge collapse in Minneapolis, rescue efforts had been suspended for the night. Too dark. Current too swift. Too much debris. Too dangerous. Eventually I slept while others tended to the injured and tried to figure out what comes next.

Statistics as of early this morning: Four confirmed deaths. Nearly 70 injured, some of them critically. Damaged internal organs. Head wounds. Concussions. There are bodies in vehicles that couldn’t be reached before darkness fell last night. The vehicles are submerged in the Mississippi River. Others may have been crushed under the weight of the bridge itself. It is no longer a rescue operation. There is no hope for those who have not yet been reached. More.

A River Runs Through It

susan — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:41:50 -0500

Ah, we'll get a kiss from Laura and a promise to rebuild from George. Very interesting to see if he keeps his promises of rebuilding to the light skinned folks at the top of the river better than he has to the dark skinned ones at the bottom. More.

The bridges of Hennepin County

barbara — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:12:31 -0500

barbara writes

What follows is a recounting of the hours right after the I-35 bridge collapsed. It was sent to me by Adrienne, who lives close to the Mississippi and the now-infamous bridge.

My head never did hit the pillow last night. I got about 45 minutes of sleep, dozing in and out while watching the TV coverage from my big comfy chair with my pup Cody nestled beneath my chin. Otherwise, I’ve been up all night.

I live on the Mississippi river bank, among the numerous bridges that join the east and west banks. I can see six of the bridges from my terrace.

Last night at 6:05, I was walking Cody over the Central Avenue Bridge. About a third of the way across, I noticed a man hanging on the rail, looking eastward, talking on his cell phone. Another woman was walking alongside me and Cody, and as we approached this man, he grabbed at us, yelling frantically, “The bridge collapsed, the bridge collapsed. I just saw it go down.” He was freaking out, pointing and begging us to follow his pointing finger to look.Read more.

500 yards and feet to the fire

barbara — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 12:17:39 -0500

barbara writes

You know what? I'm having a really hard time with the Minnesota bridge collapse and all the flapdoodle emerging around that possibly avoidable tragedy.

For starters, something there is in both Dems and Reps that wants to point immediately to a cause for something this immense. And given the toxic state of things political, especially in the past 6+ years, I often find myself turning to the right when I point the finger of blame.

And then the calm voices and the faux calm voices (those pretending to foster patient neutrality in order to deflect the anger) urge us to stay centered, to avoid rushing to judgment. Read more.

Calling Hans Blix: Searching for Weapons in Iraq

susan — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:41:17 -0500

Susan writes:
It's the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, so what better day to learn that the Pentagon can't account for at least 30% of the weapons sent to Iraqi security forces over the last three years. According to the BBC, the GAO reports that 110,000 AK-47's, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 pieces of body armor and 115,000 helmets are lost and may have fallen into the hands of the insurgents. No way!

About $19.2 billion has been spent since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. The GAO, calling it a "collapse in accountability", says that at least $2.8 billion of this was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment.

Even better, the GAO says the weapons distribution was "haphazard, rushed and failed to follow established procedures," particularly from 2004 to 2005, which was when Gen. David Petraeus was in charge of security training. Yep, Gen. Betrayus, who'll be telling us in September how well everything's going. The only guy the Decider will listen to. More.

Another war, another crisis

barbara — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:33:12 -0500

Perhansa writes

While the recovery effort continues on the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, we wait to understand the political, natural and engineering culprits that brought down a bridge.

While Congress recesses, we are left to ponder the machinations that left the NSA and Justice Department with renewed powers to “eavesdrop” without oversight.

While the Iraqi Parliament vacations, our men and women in uniform (and countless Iraqi civilians) continue to die or be subject to constant peril in the hellhole Iraq has become, and we’re left wondering what will happen to Iraq when we finally leave.

As the cicadas sing and a warm August breeze sweeps away the sweat from my brow, I contemplate another “war” and another “crisis” of our generation. I reluctantly call it the War on Truth and the crisis which is so closely aligned with it: the Crisis of Trust. Continue reading.

Woozles? Bring 'em on!!

barbara — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:28:04 -0500

barbara writes

(Warning: The following post contains zigs and zags that are not marked. Proceed with caution.)

The bridge collapse about which there is no end of blame and acrimony yielded its sixth, seventh and eighth victims yesterday. (Update: now nine.) One was a man from a suburb adjacent to mine. Same age as my elder son. The most recent is a tiny girl child who, in life, had laughing eyes. Amazing how this bridge catastrophe seems so personal sometimes, even when we don’t know the individuals.

I read a little while ago that a homeless man whose “home” was under the bridge believes everyone who lived there was someplace else last Wednesday when the bridge crashed down. Thus the out-of-sight-and-mind people surfaced for an instant. Apparently they look out for each other. A community with no automatic garage door openers, no air conditioned rooms with closed doors and windows, no visible walls, no fridges with ice and water dispensers.

Just got my Common Dreams update. Headlines include these: Read on.

More Gubmint on the Cheap

susan — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:32:13 -0500

I wrote the following piece for the WATCH newsletter several weeks ago, after hearing from prosecutors, public defenders and others that the criminal justice system was being squeezed dry by budget cuts at the state level. The newsletter came out on August 1, the day the bridge collapsed. Yes, I think there’s a theme here.

Americans remain a mystifying lot. Latest polls show that even though 52% of respondents worry about the bridges they cross, nearly 66% don't want to pay higher taxes to repair them. And President Chimpy has ruled out any hike to the gas tax, suggesting Congress take a look at how it's spending the money it has already got. (I think that's how he put it.)
Please read more.

Rove's out, kinda, sorta

barbara — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:12:21 -0500

barbara writes

Okay, I wasn't going to write about this. Everyone else is all over it. But just in case you’re living in a cave near Tora Bora and have missed the news, Turdblossom is history. Maybe.

Karl Christian Rove announced at a joint presser with the Current Occupant that he tendered his resignation today. Actually, that was the first inaccuracy, since it has been noted he resigned last Friday. Monday, Friday, whatever. BushCo isn't much with details.

I watched a tape of the “emotion-charged” presser. I use quotation marks because I’m not completely convinced the emotion was real. I figure any man who can dream up phony reasons for starting an immoral war is capable of going verklempt on cue. Read some more stuff.

Heckuva Job Buddy

susan — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:37:54 -0500

From cartoonist Jim Morin of the Miami Herald
Because a picture is worth a thousand words. SL

Building Bridges: Haste Makes Waste

susan — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:46:13 -0500

Susan writes:
My beloved, forward-thinking mother, who went to jail with Martin Luther King in Albany, GA and was a big supporter of women's rights, defaulted in the last years of her long life to an odd reverence for the abilities of men. Did I mention she suffered from mild senile dementia?

One of her standard riffs was that we need men to build bridges, that it was the sort of thing that didn't interest women. Our job, she ventured, was to civilize the men. (Did I mention the dementia?)

So here we are with a bunch of men -- and Lt. Gov/Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau -- setting out to build a bridge. (And probably a slew of women engineers as well, sorry mother.) And predictably, there's a squabble.
Details here.

Trouble in river city

barbara — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:47:44 -0500

barbara writes

Welcome to Clotheslineblog.com. The all bridge, all the time site. What can I say? It's pretty consuming if you live in MN.

Rapid transit has taken on a whole new meaning this month in Minnesota. Even as vehicles and bodies and bridge debris are still being pulled from the Mississippi River, there is a fast-forward plan for building a new bridge. There’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on about the pace and the design, and as you’ve already read here, questions about how much of this is political rather than societal.

There’s so much flap about all of this that the New York Times picked it up for a feature article today. Always interesting to read how others perceive us.

The Times tells us that the U of M’s Lawrence Jacobs proclaims, “There’s a deep sense of loss for people all over Minnesota. And for them, to see kind of this new—and old—politics flare up like this is unseemly.” That’s a word from my long-ago childhood. I remember my grandmother talking about people in her little North Dakota town behaving in an “unseemly” manner. If Gramma said it was so, then it was so, amen, end of sermon. It will not surprise you, therefore, to know that I shivered a shamed little shiver at Mr. Jacobs’ words. By his definition, I, too, am being unseemly, because I'm asking questions. Read some more.

The Conquerors

barbara — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:50:34 -0500

A restless day.

So much going on. Bridges. Mines. Resignations. Earthquakes. Hurricanes. War. And more war.

I've been bumbling about, paging through some of my books for no particular reason.

Which is how I came across this poem that I want to share with you.

The Conquerors
by Phyllis McGinley

It seems vainglorious and proud
Of Atom-man to boast aloud
His prowess homicidal
When one remembers how for years,
With their rude stones and humble spears,
Our sires, at wiping out their peers,
Were almost never idle.

Despite his under-fissioned art
The Hittite made a splendid start
Toward smiting lesser nations; More.

Nixon and Bush

barbara — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 01:01:11 -0500

Perhansa writes:

I’m not a huge Oliver Stone fan but last night I watched Nixon, starring Anthony Hopkins. I was continually amazed at the parallels between Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. Though I don’t know how much of Stone’s movie is based in truth and how much is dramatization, it left me wondering whether history is repeating itself or if this is psychology redux. Read on.

Iran! Tally-ho!

susan — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:01:43 -0500

Turns out what I thought last week was a hangover was something else and I got sicker and sicker and finally resorted to a doctor and ultimately to heavy narcotics. Well, that'd be nice. Actually, just nasty antibiotics.

I've been too pooped to hang any linen on the line, and so am posting an email sent to me by friend ddruth from CA. You'll notice a familiar C-Line theme here: How can it be that our government is running (or has run) amok, and that we can't seem to stop them? (I don't know, but please read on anyway.)

Good Morning America!

susan — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:01:14 -0500

Caution! Coffee at work!

It's so foggy here I can't breathe and I got up way too early and stayed up way too late. And coffee made me write this.

They filmed some TV show here today, the uber early morning show or something, and as I was writing in my office very late last night, I could hear a LOUD blast from an industrial barge, not like the soft hoot owl horn of a freighter passing gently in the Straits, but a nasty Republican in-your-face sort of blast, coming close, then receding, then coming close again, receding, and in the background a busy hum of fossil-fueled engines, and normally all you hear at night here is the clop of horses and the occasional whoop of a drunk, so I knew that this was the invasion of those mobile TV stations that they drive up to places like Waco and OJ's house so they can snake up their ET necks and bounce important messages into orbit, the sort of vehicles we're not supposed to have here unless they're horse drawn, but things they sneak in under cover of dark if it means "a really good opportunity" for someone -- more fudge sold, more horses harnassed, more beef tournedos served by Jamaicans paid less than your kid who sells lemonade on a bright summer morning.
Yep, there's more you betcha.

Journalism sinks like rock in a cesspool!!!

barbara — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 08:48:55 -0500

barbara writes

“Journalism” has gone missing.

The latest and greatest is stories about and access to tapes of 911 phone calls from the I-35W bridge that collapsed earlier this month. Give me a break!

MPR tells us that the 911 tapes were released Friday in response to public records requests from news media including The Associated Press. This is totally crass and more than a little disgusting.

“911 calls capture raw horror after bridge fell,” bleats the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “A flurry of 911 calls captured the moments of concern, panic and fear after the I-35W bridge collapse.” >> Read more.

Gonzales may have resigned -- says he can't recall

barbara — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:39:53 -0500

barbara writes

Okay. Puffery alert. I have been asking all summer what would happen if Alberto Gonzales resigned in August. My Chertoffian gut warned me this was likely to happen. I couldn’t get anyone to take my concern seriously. Bush’s promise (bwahahahahaha!) to Reid about no session recess appointments notwithstanding, could Bush appoint a replacement AG and make it stick? I guess we’re about to find out.

The cherub-faced Attorney General who worships at the altar of the Toxic Texan says he's movin' on down the road. Of course, he might not remember that he resigned. This is the man who uttered variations of “I don’t recall” more than 60 times while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last spring. However, he’s a total piker compared to his chief of staff who uttered “Can’t remember” variations 122 times by actual count. Will Gonzo remember to leave office on September 17 as promised? >> Read on.

Who ya gonna trust?

barbara — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:51:53 -0500

barbara writes

The Bush administration is arguably the most divisive in this country’s history. I say “arguably,” because someone may have a different point of view. Possibly someone nestled safely in the up-to-30 percent who claim to support BushCo. I am not one of them.

Full disclosure. I am not a lifelong Democrat. I was raised in an unapologetically Republican family with deep Republican roots. As a young adult, I was active in GOP politics. In my mid-30s, I began to look left across the great divide. Over time, I crossed over, turning my back on the party of my parents forever. I have dabbled in Dem politics for many years. It was the death of Paul Wellstone that made me stand up and become a political activist again. So I’m comparatively late to the party, unlike many of you who’ve been there all along.

>Click here to read on.

High stakes blame game

barbara — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:55:42 -0500

barbara writes

Government Accountability Office. (sardonic laughter) The mother of all oxymorons for the past 6+ years. But the GAO is Congress’ baby.

Apparently an anonymous someone in the bowels of government leaked the GAO’s scathing report on the status of Iraq in advance of its release to Congress next week. “Someone” seemed to think the White House might doctor it. I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you. Such cynicism. After all, the Defense Department is reviewing the report, and their integrity is above reproach, is it not?

According to the Washington Post, the GAO report runs starkly counter to the partly sunny Petraeus/Crocker forecast that will follow in September. (Read the whole Post article here.)

Highlights from the outed GAO report:

Of eighteen benchmarks (mostly security), three have been met, 13 have not, and two have been partially met. (Why does this remind me of No Child Left Behind?)
One of eight political benchmarks has been met: protecting the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature.
Fewer attacks against U.S. forces, but Iraqi civilians are still being slaughtered in large numbers.
“Capabilities of Iraqi security forces have not improved.”
“Key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high.”
Legislation on constitutional reform, new oil laws and de-Baathification are all failures.
Prospects for additional progress in reaching benchmarks have been FUBAR’d by walkout of nearly half of Iraqi Cabinet members.
WH says there’s been a slight decline in army units capable of operating independently; GAO says number has dropped from ten to six. >>Read on.

No bull!

barbara — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 22:09:04 -0500

barbara writes

Minnesota. The action state! Falling bridges! Floods! Perverts! Dead bulls!

In case you missed it, at the Minnesota State Fair today, a very cranky bull broke loose from its owners, ran wild for a block or so, and head-butted a fire hydrant, whereupon it dropped dead in its tracks.

I have reason to believe the bull was a Republican. We've seen this kind of thing before. It’s a page right out of the Dick Cheney playbook. >Read on!