The Crime of Terrorism

We are now being told that if we leave Iraq, we can kiss civilization good-bye. We are told that Iraq is central to the War on Terror. We are told this because fifty-one percent of us choose to see that Iraq has nothing to do with rolling up terror cells, cutting off the funds that these cells use, securing airports and borders and doing other things to fight the crime of terrorism.

Yes, terrorism is a crime, something that can neither be tolerated nor eliminated. We have to keep fighting it like we do murder, rape and other horrendous crimes.

The president raves and rants about how important it is to secure Baghdad and Iraq but every day dozens die there. I was personally told that Baghdad would be secure by October. It won’t be. Now, our top general says that by early 2008, we can begin to pull out. He said we can begin to pull out by 2008.

By then, probably more than 3 thousand of our men will have died. Think about it: Three thousand of our men and women will have given their lives to make sure of…of what?

September 11 should be a sacred, holy day, undefiled by petty politics. Instead Bush is using it as a shield to protect his failed war and war crimes. He beats his opponents over the head with it. He says that his policies and his policies alone will prevent another one.

Do you get it? He is implying what many of his thralls have been openly saying for years: opposing him and his flawed, failed policies is aiding and abetting the enemy, that this blog and others like it are treasonous.

Such thoughts and rhetoric are hysterical. When uttered by the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, they are half-comic and half-pathetic. When uttered by Bush, our chief magistrate, they are an attack by the executive branch pm our rights.

We who blog, who speak out, who oppose peacefully this regime, we are running risks. This regime can and does believe that torture works (It doesn’t.) and therefore it is justified. (It isn’t; it is never justified.) So it has no moral compass. We must assume it can come after us and may at some point.

That is why free speech for us is no longer a right; it is a moral obligation, a sacred imperative.

Bush is using fear once again to sway the electorate. Sisters and brothers, once you vote your fears instead of your hopes, you are no longer free; you have been terrorized.

Rummy makes me want gin

According to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, critics of the Bush’s misadministration’s have “moral and intellectual confusion” when it comes to Iraq.

He said we are trying to appease the terrorists.

No, we are not. If we were, we’d be calling for a withdrawal from Afghanistan. If we were, we’d be calling for the reestablishment of the caliphate under Osama bin Laden. If we were, we’d give Spain and Portugal to him on a golden platter and perhaps Sicily on another one.

Appeasement? Are we calling for Sharia courts in U.S. cities? Do we want Muslim women denied education and jobs?

Rumsfeld is himself intellectually ad morally confused. His boss, George “infallible, unflappable and imperial” Bush says even now that invading Iraq was right and poor old Rumsfeld can’t admit his boss is dead wrong.

If GWB is another LBJ, Don Rumsfeld is no Bob McNamara. McNamara woke up, saw the light and turned against the Vietnam.

Rummy, who sits where Mac sat in the Pentagon, lacks his predecessor’s intelligence, courage or honesty. He cannot see what a ghastly, bloody mistake Iraq has been.

Instead the man is repeating lines approved by Karl Rove, chief propagandist for the current t bunch of fools and liars.

Democracy in America is under attack, not only by Islamists, but by the demagogues of the whacked-out right.

We, the loyal opposition, cannot be silenced by smears and jeers, by fools and knaves. We must speak clearly and constantly one crystal clear truth: Iraq was and is a hellish, deadly mistake.

Don, wake up. For the love of the Great Eternal, WAKE UP!

GWB=LBJ

When I was younger, I first heard and read a piece that purportedly showed eerie coincidences between Lincoln and John Kennedy. Some were true. They both were elected and years ending in 60 and both were shot to death in office.

But some were patently bogus. Kennedy did have a secretary named Lincoln but Lincoln did not have a secretary named Kennedy.

I mention this because Bush and Lyndon Johnson have much more in common than Lincoln and JFK ever did.

Consider the following:

Both came from Texas.

Both shared their last name with one other Chief Executive. (Lyndon Johnson was not related to Andrew Johnson; Barbara Bush says G.W. Bush is related to G.H.W. Bush but the lady swears a dog dictated a book to her as well.)

Both had ranches.

Both had a wife and two daughters.

Both came to power under highly dubious circumstances. Kennedy’s death, which ha never really been explained, made LBJ President while five Supreme Court Justices made Bush that.

Johnson wanted to be another Franklin Roosevelt. Bush wanted to be another Reagan. By the time Johnson left office, helping the poor began to be frowned upon. We can only hope Bush has discredited helping the rich.

Both took the country to war using questionable intelligence. Johnson said North Vietnam fired on our ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, which was a lie. Bush said Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was not correct.

Both said they were fighting a different kind of war. And supporters of both men said they were fighting over there to keep from fight over here.

Why go on? This is all true and it is all pretty creepy.

Johnson hurt America and Bush is hurting her more every day. The difference is Johnson finally changed course a little when confronted by men who knew the war was wrong but Bush cannot be confronted because no one can convince him he’s wrong.

Last week, we were told Baghdad was calmer but this weekend violence increased there, killing ten GIs and scores of Iraqis.

They keep feeding us shit, folks, pure grade A shit.

They task before us is to check Bush, to fight radical Islamists but to get out of Iraq and to avoid a unilateral war with Iran. We must do this. We have no choice.

GWB is LBJ and the big fool must be stopped.

Keep hoping.

Unicorns II

Ann Coulter on Unicorns
Liberals who drive SUVs that make .7 mugs to watch Al Gore’s so called epic on global warming are not hypocrites. They just think only cars driven by Republicans cause pollution.
These poor fools are now ridiculing Pres. Bush’s call to save the unicorns. They say the money could be used to educate ghetto kids and Indians.
Excuse me, but I like my poor folk mannerly but dumb. They’re easier to control. Just joking; you can’t expect the poor to be mannerly.
Unicorns are noble creatures. They hang out with virgins, which may be why liberals loathe them.
So Bush is right to defend them. The fact that we don’t know where they are bothers liberals more than me.
Liberals, although they are devious, godless and traitorous beings, are not capable of faith. Everything must be concrete to them because they lack cognitive powers. To be blunt: they are dumber than dirt.
Conservatives can believe is the unseen, the useable and the provably false because we are just better people. We’re smarter, hipper, more honest, have better taste in cheese and wine and are prettier.
We also have more humility.
Unicorn deniers may seem harmless but once rational thought is demanded of a policy, you can kiss our Iraqi strategy and our civilization good-bye.
Islamic fanatics also deny that unicorns are real, which is further prove that the two groups are interchangeable and further proof the President is on to something.
Our path is clear (Liberals hate clarity.): We have never seen unicorns but we must save them so that our grandchildren can’t see them just like us!

How Bad is it?

“How bad is it?’ you ask as you survey the messes in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We also have guys on the Horn of Africa; I heard that on NPR from a Marine officer. We’re probably in Somalia but we could be trying to restore monarchy in Ethiopia. You never know, do you?)

“How bad can it get?” is a logical but highly painful question you ask next. Take Lebanon. Please.

I wrote in my post on unicorns that Bush declared Hezbollah licked there. You know things are pretty bad if your leader denies reality. Bush is either delusional or a pathological liar to make such a remark.

Which choice gives you most comfort?

Be that as it may, Lebanon was a completely unnecessary and highly foreseeable foul-up. The wild card in the mix is Pakistan. Why Pakistan and not Iran?

Iran does not have the bomb yet. Pakistan does and its “street” hates us, even though its president, Pervez Musharaf, likes us a lot but not enough to give up power and hold elections now. That can wait.

Yes, it jolly well can. The last thing I want in Pakistan is a government doing the will of its people for its people want to blow us up and jolly well can.

Meanwhile, back in Lebanon, none of the European countries seem keen on going in to police the truce except Italy. Go Italy! Everybody talks about the resurgence of China after centuries of decay. Well, maybe the home of the Roman Empire is making a comeback.

However, it is doubtful our little Caesar in cowboy boots and his court are pondering any of this. Reality as we know it is not as they know it.

Opposing Bush’s foreign policy is one of several reasons I’m blogging again. Soon, I’ll move this to another site where I hope leaving comments will make you jump through hoops to leave comments. Till then, email me at drundle@sbcglobal.net. Take care, pray and…

Keep hoping!!

Unicorns I

One of the perks of being President, besides free cable and cabinet members who daydream about you when they’re not screwing up our foreign relations, is that you can deny reality.

If you want to think the earth is not warming, you can. If you want to think the best way to save Social Security is to take money away from it, you can. If you want to think we’re winning in Iraq , then by gum, we are wining.

You can even believe that Israel beat Hezbollah, you can. You can even say so at the State Department and be applauded.

It is a great job.

You can do this:

You can get up one morning and say to your people: “I think it is high time to save the unicorns!” And they will say yes, it is.

You can go on TV and give a speech about how important unicorns are, how cute they are.

The next day Fix News—I meant to type Fox but Fix news actually makes sense; they fix it for their own agenda—Fix News will have unicorn experts on every motherless show.

“We must save the wild unicorns,” they’ll say and the Fix News hosts will nod sagely.

“You so called ‘scientist,’” Shrill O. Really will shriek at a guest, “the President says we must save the unicorns and you heartless tree-hugging hypocrite say unicorns never existed. I bet you say ‘happy holidays,’ you commie so-and-so!”

Ann Coulter, the nine-foot tall author cum columnist cum nut cake will write a book called Butchers! And it will be bestsellers despite not having one coherent thought.

Yes, now days if you’re President, you can deny all the reality you want. And you get that free cable to boot!

Men in Motion
By David P. Rundle

Men in motion, men in black
Teaching, preaching
Absolving, revolving

Men in clerics, men in service
Picking up dead petals round the altar
Picking up a sinner when he falters

Men in the world, Men not of it
Forever alone in a hard life
Forever living with no wife

Men I call Father, men that call me brother
Priests in the pulpit proclaiming the Word
Priests at the altar elevating the consecrated Lord

Note: This was inspired by my pastor, Fr. Matt McGinis, a man who embodies purposeful motion.

The Gift

The Gift
By David P. Rundle

There was a small room in the armory,
A cooled room with a couch
My sister ushered the old man and me there

So while the wedding dance swayed,
I stayed with the old man
I was on the couch and he in an office chair

He leaned close to hear me as he spoke
Told me of the country school
Where he went eight years and struggled

He said he learned more with his kids
Said he grew up with us

While he talked on these things, we held hands,
My father and me
Age had cooled his
But it was gentle

Rachel came to get him
For his oxygen was running low

But I will remember forever
The night Jose wed Kayla
And I held my father’s hand

Coyote Moon

Coyote Moon
By David P. Rundle

Night on a country road
The driver thinking of his wife
The rider thinking of ways to get one

Stars laugh down at them
Owls hoot at them

A buck breaks in front of them
The truck stops
The buck leaps away

“Did you see that?” asks the driver

“No, I was gazing up at the coyote moon”