By some freak mischance I got bumped up to first class on today’s flight from Hartford to DC. I was wallowing there in my leather seat, enjoying the unaccustomed luxury when a late 20’s husband and wife and their young daughter came into the cabin. The woman held a shiny black and silver ericsson phone tight to her ear. As I watched, her face turned ashen and her mouth fell open in reaction to something someone on the phone was saying.
"Oh, my god, Karen, I’m so sorry!" she wailed, "Oh, my god, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!!"
And she collapsed right there, just fell to her knees in the middle of the aisle.
"Oh my GOOOOOD!!" she screamed.
"Honey…" her husband said, obviously deeply concerned, but also sort of embarrassed in that way that people are reflexively are at sudden, violent bursts of emotion.
The girl, kid-skinny and blond and maybe nine or ten years old was clearly frightened, but also embarrassed like her dad. "Mommy, come to the seats…," she said, gently pulling her hand. In other words, "I know something is wrong, but please, Mommy, can’t you do this somewhere where everyone isn’t LOOKING AT ME?!"
"Karen, we’re coming. Just hang on, baby, we’re coming. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry…," the mother said and began to weep in a way that pierced right into me and made tears sting my own eyes.
The whole planeload of passengers just sat rigid and frozen for a split second. Then, as the family went on to their seats everyone sort of exhaled and proceded to act as if everything was normal, just at half volume, although the noises from outside of course went on exactly as before. As they disappeared around the edge of the first class/coach partition, a flight attendant brushed quickly and soundlessly down the aisle and then I heard her talking in a low, soothing voice.
An hour or so later, I wandered to that lavatory and as I was coming out, I heard the flight attendant telling her counterpart that the woman had been talking to her sister whose baby is due tomorrow. The baby’s father was caught in the detonation of an IED outside of Baghdad and has been Medevac-ed to Germany with burns over 80% of his body.
I used to be a unit clerk in the emergency room of a hospital. Burns over 80% of the body? It’s a coin toss as to whether that baby is going to be born with or without a father.
Hours later in the Atlanta airport, I was sitting at the Atlanta Bread Company waiting to catch the shuttle bus. Hartsfield has this central atrium kind of deal that really just looks and feels like a mall. And just like every mall all over America, there was a big throng of kids hanging around, lolling on the modular furniture in ways its designers probably never foresaw, playing grab-ass and generally horsing around. As I got deeper into my iced coffee, the group swelled and I noticed that there were some really handsome guys there, young urban-looking kids, mostly in their twenties, although some of them looked younger. I wondered if it was a college group or some kind of Christian camp or retreat.
Then by the time I reached the part of the iced coffee that’s basically tan-colored water with some little flakes of ice floating in it, there must have been two hundred kids. And then I noticed that they all had the exact same backpack. It was black with this patch on it:
Recruits. As I watched, a short, muscular-looking woman in BDU’s began to marshall them into two separate lines, pointed at the doorways to the security checkpoints and the terminals beyond. I realized that I was watching these kids live the last moments of their civilian lives.
I looked at their beautiful hair and skin, their long, straight limbs, their bright, curious eyes and I wondered how many of them would end up on a plane to Germany with burns over 80 percent of their bodies. How many won’t even get that far?
George Bush and good Republicans like Joe Lieberman don’t want to admit that the War in Iraq is a failure. They’re afraid to do anything that might Show Weakness In An Election Year. (And you see how well that’s working out for Joe Lieberman.) Every day they postpone facing up to the mess they’ve made, more soldiers die. DIE.
Not. Ever. Coming. Home.
Ever.
I was lucky as hell. My father came home uninjured from Vietnam. A little baby is going to be born tomorrow who’s not lucky like that. And for what? To give Halliburton the right to bury 20 tons of nails in the Iraqi desert because they’re the wrong size?
A vote for Joe Lieberman? It’s a vote to kill another American soldier. By not deciding. By "staying the course". By not facing up to the reality that our troops’ lives and bodies are not to be squandered on corporate wars. The reason the Republicans don’t want the war to end is because they haven’t gotten an adequate return on their investment. That oil’s not flowing. "If we leave now, things will only get worse." Well, yeah. That’ll mean we didn’t get any oil at ALL!
Bring the troops home.
(UPDATE: Comments on this post are closed.)
Related posts:
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NED!
TRex!
Oh God please tell me the sports thread is over hehe.
Wow.
Awesome, heartbreaking, terrible post, TRex.
So right and so true. All I can think of is the John Kerry anti-war quote, “How Do You Ask a Man to Be the Last Man to Die…”
Father = fodder.
Their lives have no meaning at all to the Republicans.
capeman @ 4
The “last” part is not really even necessary.
wow
TRex
Thanks. That was a great post.
That was very moving. Thank you for another real face on this war.
That was beautifully written, T-Rex. Sure glad you had the opportunity to be in Connecticut.
And the avisceral twits of echo chamber will just keep parroting:
Cut’n run!
Cut’n run!
Cut’n run!
Cut’n run!
Even though none of them would dare visit a battlefield that hadn’t been cold for at least half a century.
Beautiful post, TRex. No more corporate wars. Ever.
What a terrible story. You know what I mean.
Burns are a terrible thing. My sister had burns to 80% of her body and she died.
My BIL had them too and he lived. He doesn’t sweat anymore more from the really damaged parts. He lost a lot of his hearing from the antibiotics. He is HIV positive from the blood transfusions.
But he’s got to watch his kids grow up.
Meanwhile the Senate Appropriations committee cut the budget for Brain Injury and Research in half.
Brain injury is called the signature injury of the action in Iraq.
None of this is good but for some reason my heart goes out to those Iraqis who are getting slaughtered/killed because of US. There are far too many of them to be ignored. Its worse for them because they had SH take away part of their life, US has taken the rest. There is absolutely no excuse for it. We already know torture, rape, murder etc. And they did nothing to deserve it.
I’m just speechless, wiping my eyes. Wow.
TRex, you can be sure that some of those young Americans you saw will come home safer for your work this weekend.
Beautiful, awesome well-crafted post. Thank you.
And anytime somebody tries to pretend these warmongers don’t play politics with soldiers’ lives, just remind them how Bush waited until after the 2004 elections before launching attacks on Fallujah, etc.
What an agonizing post, TRex.
powerful writing…
Thank you for this post, dear TRex.
(sniffle) Thanks,TRex.
On a recent trip to Europe, I had plenty of time to watch people in American airports. I, too, was witness to a small, localized grief tableau which seemed to involve news from Iraq.
I also saw many soldiers, airmen, and sailors in uniform. Many of them looked focused, sober, and grim. I would characterize their look as wary — observing everything through old, experienced eyes. I do not recall seeing any of them smiling.
How times have changed. *Sigh.*
in the spring of 2005, a young Marine came to the elementary school where I work… in theory, he was there to encourage the kids to “do their best”…
as a vet, I had complete respect for the guy… as a person involved in ensuring a future for these kids, I was mad as hell… our neighborhood is the kind of neighborhood that the recruiters love as military service represents and opportunity for these kids. while I want the kids to have the chance to spread their wings and see the military as an option, I sure as hell don’t want to see them blown to bits…
that day changed me forever.
That was an excellent and moving post, TRex. I always wonder when I see the recruits outside the gathering spot near the Greyhound station in downtown Indy if they know what they are truly getting themselves into.
The “last” part is about deciding when and then making it so.
Great emotional piece, Trex. The sadness is beyond words.
Moved, I am.
Wow, TRex. Thank you.
but on the bright side, every major oil company is reporting record profits
Wow.
The curse of being a caring individual.
Great to meet you last night, T. Glad you’re home safe,
The Republicans’ secret weapon is the fact that most liberals have good manners. We recoil, a little, at the assertion above. It’s not nice to say such things.
But what do we do when such things are true? Let’s be polite no more! Let’s rise above our fastidiousness! Because — godammit! –
A vote for Joe Lieberman? It’s a vote to kill another American soldier.
TRex and Bionic, both of your stories are frighteningly sad.
I wonder how a George Bush War Supporter would respond to the exact same scene?
What conclusion would they draw from the overheard conversations? From seeing all the recruits?
A wingnut I know recently wrote that our problem is that we AREN’T KILLING ENOUGH people.
“You can’t bargain with them. They have to be utterly destroyed.”
And he said that of course war is hell, but we have to do it. That’s just the way it is, human nature.
Would it help for these war supporters to see more real war? Talk to real hurt people, or would it just keep trigging their standard response?
Troops. Home. Now.
The US should take war-making powers completely away from the Executive Branch, and force any of these little wars of choice we have engaged in since WW2 be approved by the Congress.
Now that idea would really start Dick Cheney a’twitchin!
My best friend was injured in a mortar attack on his FOB in Ramadi in October 2003. Shrapnel embedded in his lower back, damage to his spine, pelvis and tailbone, and now as of recent tests, permanent brain damage from his brain being jarred in his skull by the explosions.
Today the VA docs informed him they want to put him inpatient for a couple of weeks after allowing him to walk around for the last three years almost, telling him his injuries were psychosomatic or not as extensive as they seem to be. His is not the only case going like this either, the VA has been notorious with misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, backlogs of paperwork and so on since this war began.
A vote for Lieberman is a vote for incompetence, mismanagement, death, destruction, heartache and a bleak future for us all. One day these vets are gonna get angry and turn on this government and the insurgency we joke about in this country will become real because people like Joe Lieberman were in office. I dedicate all of my work to getting rid of these assholes to Joe Mitchell.
Thank you, TRex. I could hug you.
I may not be a Nutmegger. I can’t vote in CT.
But it’s f*cking personal for this very reason.
Because my stepson wasn’t really ready for college when he graduated in 1999, I had encouraged him to join the Army. I thought he’d get a chance to see the world, realize how very privileged he was as an American, get the discipline he needed to set him on the right path before he came around and wanted to go to college, would even earn money for school that we didn’t have at that time. He’d be serving his country in exchange, a noble and necessary occupation.
But Clinton was president of the United States, we were fat and happy with an exploding stock market, life was good. I remember seeing a report cross my desk from a futurist that same year, one that predicted that America would increasingly be seen as a rogue nation. Hah! I told the guy who forwarded it to me, where did this crackpot futurist come from anyhow?
My stepson bloomed in the service, decided to cut short his trips home so that he could muster out early to start college. Good deal, or so it looked.
And then 9/11, and the rest of the story that you already know. In February 2003 he is prepping to get shipped out, in March 2003 he is on the ground in Iraq. And he was there, well after his 4 years was up. I was afraid to leave the house for the entire tour, afraid I would miss his one call home, yet afraid to be there when the dark, four-door sedan with military plates pulled up in the driveway.
He never told his father he was treated for PTSD; I guess I knew, I could tell just from his voice that he wasn’t himself, was on something. He told me a lot and nothing, and told me everything around the black hole that was his tour, enough that I can make out from the shape of the shadows what this has done to this once happy-go-lucky boy.
And now we wait in this countdown to the end of his IRR; we are pretty sure because of some odd things that he was not called up again because of PTSD and/or because of his specialized training (might be needed ELSEWHERE…). I hope like hell nothing happens in this EPU zone of his last year on IRR.
And I still nurse the nagging guilt for ever thinking this was the right thing for him to do. He may have needed time and discipline, but he should never, ever have had to get them under the command of George W. Bush. It is one thing to serve with honor for honorable reasons, but it is another to serve for a lie. We are only too lucky that our story so far has a happy ending; it could have been all too easily like that posted here in Late Nite FDL.
Joe Lieberman needs to be removed from any opportunity to hold public office where he might vote to put anyone’s life at risk. It’s personal.
Shorter spocko @ 31
The best way to deal with them is to get them to fight their own war. Some of these creeps actually get off on war porn, but it’s a little different when the target silhouettes get to shoot back.
OldCoastie @ 23
The recruiters love my neighborhood (Harlem) too. They drive through with their Humvee pumpin’ out Jay-Z. I work with a lot of teens here, recruiters also would wait for them before and after school on the subway platform. We had one who had a scholarship to a good university, recruiters heckled him every morning — he was too smart, but pissed me off.
Tell ‘em Rex! Rub their noses in the stink of the death and putrefaction the ‘Kissers’ are responsible for.
It’s a blot on our nation’s soul that scum like Leibermann and Bush have been allowed. Yes, that’s right, allowed to create the disaster in Iraq. The only course open to us to cleanse the nation of these crimes is: Impeachment! Followed by hard time in jail.
Get up and take action. Do it now.
The reason I believe in Ned Lamont and the reason we’re here is because we are standing up to say, end this war. The death of triangulation.
It makes me very angry to hear about such things. It makes me even more angry to hear the White House say that by nominating Ned Lamont for U.S. Senate to help bring an end to this madness, the Democratic Party is “raising a white flag” and wants to “cut and run” from the mess that the Bush administration has wrought in Iraq. How dare they attack the patriotism of 60 percent of the American people who want to bring the troops home safely. We must fight back and hit them hard from now until November. And that’s just the start.
Here’s another story. I graduated from high school in 1974. Late the previous year, I got my draft card. I was left in the “unclassified” category. Mine was the second high school class that didn’t have a lottery.
If we’d “stayed the course” in Vietnam, I or my classmates probably would have spent some time there. That wall in Washington DC would be much longer, and nothing else would have changed. Heck, we’d probably still be there. Over half the U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam died after the President we supposedly elected to end the war took office, and all we got out of those four years was “peace with honor”, whatever the hell that meant.
At some point, there’s nothing more you can do except rearrange the mess. We’re there in Iraq. It’s time to get out.
FiniFini — I don’t know if you were here for the Charlie Brown Blue America thread last Saturday, but he is very strong on making sure our service people are taken care of. He has personal experience losing friends in war, and his own son has already done three rotations in Iraq.
He’s not the only veteran running as a Democrat in November. These “fighting Dems” are going to make a difference for your friend, for our soldiers. Oh, god, I’ve never felt an election was so important as this one!
Deeply moving, T-Rex. My heart holds you. Your words grip me.
I watched the news tonight.
They were all crying for their dead- Israelis, Lebanese, Iraqis. But they never showed any Americans crying.
You did. Thanks for reminding us we are just like them- sad.
al-Scooter — I can tell you exactly what a Bush supporter says.
They say, “Nuke them all, turn them into f*cking glass.”
That came out of the mouth of a friend; we didn’t know what a winger he was, I guess. He said this about the same time my stepson was getting ready to ship out. It burned up my husband inside, although he never said anything and bit his tongue about it.
There is payback, though; it’s karmic, comes dispensed by the cosmos.
This same friend’s son joined the Marines this summer, against his father’s wishes. Amazing the change in perception and the worrying and stewing now resting on the other father’s shoulders.
Karmic.
Lieberman for Connecticut = War Party
Can’t make it any simpler.
This is why every bastard Demopublican like Holy Joe and DiFi and many others need to be drummed out of office.
This is why we must treat every election for the REST OF OUR LIVES like a street fight to the death. because for some soldier, it IS a fight to the death. We must fight like cornered, wounded animals. There is NO OTHER WAY. Civility? fair play? FUCK THAT!
Having had third degree burns over 15 percent of my own body, I can tell you if I had them over 80 percent of my body, I’d beg for death.
The guy will probably die, if not from the burn trauma itself, then from a secondary infection.
Weak Democrats are a secondary infection and since 1994, they’ve been killing us. Now they’re literally killing people. How can they look at themselves in the mirror?
Rayne,
Please stop the guilt. Serving in the US Army is an honor and a privelege. It was anyway. You had no way of knowing what lay ahead. Am grateful your stepson is alive and almost whole. With time, he can heal. He has a chance.
Thank you Trex for this heartbreakingly beautiful story. You are a treasure.
LindaR @ 43
I wasnt here for that thread at the time it took place but I read it and the comments later and was very impressed with him. I am also impressed with people like John Laesch, Jim Webb, Admiral Sestak in PA and other fighting Dems running around the country.
It’s why I have thrown my skills into the mix around here and the State Roots Project because there are personal as well as moral reasons for me to be involved. I can’t donate money, but I can donate useful media skills to help guys like these spread their messages and get them elected this November.
In hindsight, TRex, tell me that you didn’t absolutely need to go to CT.
Really. The cosmos really needed you to be there, and your post tonight clearly showed why. It’s not just about CT or Democrats or voters in CT; it’s about the entire journey you made and the one we are all making together.
Uptown – my kids are TEN YEARS OLD…. beautiful and smarty pants and full of themselves and very, very impressionable…
damn straight, it’s personal…
The Republican answer to this is that they didn’t send them. They volunteered. I go absolutely nuts when I hear this…Great post.
That post really hit hard. American has f**ked up so bad. If we don’t remedy our situation in November then the violence will be taken to another level. Bring the troops home.
Hilde — I hear you. But it’s the stuff we haven’t talked about that really haunts me.
Sneaks up on us, too, like the time I opened the fridge and said something smelled like it died in there…Uh, no, that’s definitely not what dead smells like, said my stepson, in front of my school-aged kids.
It’s the shape of stuff these words outline. It’s the affect that the wake of these words leave.
A-fucking men.
Rayne/ 35
It sounds like it was the right thing for him to do. The outrage is that George W. Bush has betrayed the trust of every person in uniform and all their families and all of us. When your stepson joined, as you said, the people in charge weren’t incompetent, evil aristocrats.
Rayne, you gave the right advice at the time. No way you could’ve known. You didn’t make this war, that was Bush and his neocon Rasputin-by-committee enablers. They’ve betrayed us all and debased everything good that this country ever stood for.
In the end, they still won’t get what they want.
As you say, karmic.
BTW – I had some PTSD treatment at the VA – they knew what they were doing… but this was before these kids were coming back and the system got so overloaded…
What an excellent post this is, TRex. We must hold them to account for the evil they have committed, still do commit — and God help us, the evil they still WANT to commit in the future.
I have one tiny quibble with the very last bit of your post, though. It’s my firm belief they never went into Iraq with one of their goals being to release Iraqi oil onto the market. Oh, no. One of their goals has been to keep it off the market, so as to keep the price of oil (and gasoline) high. This suits their Saudi pals to a tee, too.
But that little quibble in no way detracts from the beautiful work you’ve done.
Rayne –
Your step-son is added to our prayer list in this household. Please keep us informed as time goes on?
It’s time to take the gloves off.
thanx Trex. xcellent xerpt.
now x out all of those b*st*rds.
TRex,
Fine writing. But, oh, darlin’, you could write that fine with ink, we don’t need all this blood. Thank you. X.
Rayne, I was thinking earlier over the last couple of threads that I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate what you bring to FDL.
Now I know that you already know this.
You are right……it is personal! Got to stop this war. Stop this president. Let’s start with Karl……….
here
Rayne @ 9:42 pm (#36) – Guilt is a useless emotion, at least when it’s about a decision that turned out to be wrong for unforeseeable reasons. Many people have a positive experience in the military, even if they go on to do other things rather than make a career out of it.
As for the PTSD, all I can tell you is that if your stepson wants to talk, I’d suggest you let him. I think you’re smart enough to know the sorts of things he’s been through. I suspect there will always be things he won’t want to talk about, except with other vets. Because of my age and occupation, I met quite a few Vietnam vets, and that was pretty typical of them. I don’t know what else you can do, though. It’s a pretty helpless feeling to watch, I’m sure.
And yet, here we are on the the fucking rnd website and from the podium of the PRESIDENT today being called cowards and defeatists.
What heartless fucks they are.
No plan.
No conscience.
No remorse.
Just more of the same. No one will still be truthful why we’re even there in the first fucking place. Today’s reason du jour is because “Osama said after we pulled out in 1991 that we didnt have the stomach for it”
In other words, we can’t leave cause Osama would think we’re pussies.
They don’t understand that Osama’s whole goal was to have Bush overreact and inflame passions across the mid-east while alienating our allies and bankrupting the country. He’s laughing his ass off right now.
How can so many people be so blindly wrong?
I am glad you are home safe and sound. How is JC Kitty, really glad to see you or ignoring you because you abandoned you?
I went to Nursing School from 1969-1972, working at the Missouri State hospital and VA Medical Center caring for returning Vets. It was heart breaker when I was in my 20’s but then to marry a Vietnam Vet, live as a dependent wife surrounded by Vets. Many surviving with the effects of Agent Orange while the VA denied the disorder. The family who lived next to me had three children with multiple birth defects and their father with so many of the classic agent Orange symptoms.
I grew up with the cost of war, my own father was wounded in WWII determined to be a disabled Vet. He always worked full time at a very active job but you could see how the injuries to his hip and knee required accommodations. The sadest part of what BushCo is doing with short changing funding for the VA, they are denying needed treatment to our Iraqi War Vets but also due to the funding cuts, we are cutting services for our older Vets.
It is our sacred trust to care and provide for our Vets. If they are willing to put their lives on the line for our country, the least we can do is make sure they have the best America can offer in care, support and in the bright light of daylight.
On this topic, an especially good diary at DKos this evening:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..2550/08775
It’s about World War I. Some things, it seems, never change. Or at least they haven’t so far. But they must, or there will be no survival.
Rayne, honey, my heart goes out to you. We aren’t omnipotent – well, there’s EPU – but our guilt assumes we are and beats us up when we can’t live up. I hope your step-son finds his way.
In any other time going into the army is a good choice for wavering youth. Only our callow marshmallow president could have fucked` up the one sure way for a kid to become a responsible adult. He broke the army; a draft won’t fix it.
thanks, Mrs. K8, al-Scooter.
It’s the wake that one dry-alky coke-damaged fortunate son has left behind him in his unthinking position as meat puppet to a cabal of killers.
It’s shaped like sisters-in-law, crumpled in plane’s aisles, to children utterly mystified by what they see and hear, to fathers with tongues bitten through, to mothers angrily demanding answers on this continent, and fuzzy, darkly mirrored images of the same on other continents.
It’s shaped like missing limbs and brain damage, like bloody puddles and bits of flesh, like children screaming and then silent, like unimaginable pain and inscrutable unexplainable torture, like assault on the senses that we can only guess at.
It’s shaped like horrific dreams we have, some softened by Wellbutrin and Xanax and Prozac, and others only by mothers across the world in the middle of the night.
At what point do we stop this thing and stop the damage it leaves behind it?
One more before turning in…
A friend’s son was stationed outside of Bagdad during 2004. National Guard, unit commander. Great guy, super-responsible, wonderful dad, very conservative religious family. He was stoked to be part of our efforts to bring “freedom and democracy” to the down-trodden Iraqis.
Within weeks, he was heartbroken. He came back whole, but instead of building schools and hospitals, he spent 24/7 keeping all 124 of his unit soldiers alive. That’s all his unit did – they survived, from one day to the next.
He still won’t talk about what he saw, what he had to do to stay alive and keep his men safe. Adjustment has been hard for his family and friends, though they understand.
The horrid, heinous results of this occupation on our country are spreading, like a virus, through our national psyche. We’ve got a bad cold turning into bronchitis, heading into pneumonia.
Of course, the Iraqis contracted a massive case of ebola that won’t be healed or checked any time in the near future.
At least we aren’t bleeding out of our eyeballs. Yet.
TRex,
wow! straight to the heart of the matter. one of the most powerful anti-war pieces i’ve read. ever. and my activism goes back to vietnam. superb work.
R.
Since there may be others who know of vets who could benefit with some counseling or treatment, there are veterans groups who do outreach.
The one I’m most familiar with is Disabled American Veterans:
http://www.dav.org/
Count Dickula himself chimes in from an undisclosed location to smear the entire Democratic party and 60% of the nation.
Deadeye Dick Cheney:
“It’s an unfortunate development, I think, from the standpoint of the Democratic Party, to see a man like Lieberman pushed aside because of his willingness to support an aggressive posture in terms of our national security strategy,” Mr. Cheney said in a telephone interview with news service reporters. . . .
(End)
Let’s not forget that the worst thing to ever happen to Deadeye Dick was shooting Harry Whittington in the face with an expensive Italian shotgun after liquoring-up for lunch.
Starting a war and killing tens of thousands…nah, that doesn’t effect him.
-GSD
Let’s face it, this administration has tapped into the lowest common denominator of the American psyche – the weak, the fearful, the stupid, the greedy, the selfish, the jingoistic. This sham of a war on terror was laughable from the start. We all knew it, we all saw it.
Anyone who bought into this insanity was a fool or a toady. That about covers it.
Could someone possibly forward TRex’s heartbreaking story to the Joe Lieberman website?
Or would this be considered spam or hacking?
TRex, you made this old(67)former Marine cry. As did Rayne @ 35.My son has been to Afghanistan once and expects to be called up again. I am so sick of the chicken hawks calls for more war. They, and their kids aren’t going to do the fighting.I think the draft would be a good thing. Hopefully, soon we can stop the madness.
On a lighter note,Colbert absolutely destroyed Liberloser tonight. Peace.
Rayne @ 35
How gut wrenching. I’m sure the countdown is agonizing for you. Who knew in 1999 that the world would look like this in 2006, or that our country would be taken over by a neocon cabal.
Has this sorry excuse for a President we have here yet attended a funeral or visited a military ward? Have any of his cabinet, possibly excepting maybe whoever is at Veterans Affairs?
The funds of which Bionic wrote were pitifully small, too. From the USAToday article reprinted at truthout:
So sorry to hear about your hardships, Bionic. We have had such in our family too, and the horror can linger decades and span generations, as I’m sure you know. Fortunately, there are also some great stories of hope from the medical front, so the young woman’s brother-in-law might still see his children and have a rewarding life.
Powerful post, TRex. Thank you.
You know, the worst thing about this whole thing is, who’s getting the publicity? Joe. What a terrible thing he was beaten! Oh, moan, oh groan, are the Democrats now a bunch of Mensheviks, or Bolsheviks? Why do we have such a stone-stupid media? We’re a better country than this, and we deserve better.
Joe was on Larry King, and he actually used every Karl Rove phrase: cut and run. You’re ideologues.
Somebody’s got to get some serious air time refuting this crap, or it will be repeated so many times that people might even believe it.
My question is: where’s Dick?
Could there be a better metaphor for the Bush WH than Lord Vader’s penchant for shooting pen-raised fowl?
OldCoastie — they do exactly as they are doing to FiniFini’s best friend; they are cutting short whatever these guys need to have a healthy and full life. SOP is to take any and all of them that are mustering out and quarantine them to base for a set number of weeks while doped up under mandatory meds, then send them out into the world with more mandatory meds. They offer therapy if they want it, but what kid — and I mean KID — really understands themselves well enough to know when they need help?
My stepson will be fine over the long run; he and I have had open conversations about what he should expect as normal, what’s not normal, where to get help, etc. He’s also got many friends he keeps in touch with from the service with whom he can share those shadows. But it’s all the things that my stepson’s situation suggest that make it clear there is a real mess out there and the size is transparent to a majority of American voters.
It’s FiniFini’s friend that is more obvious, and yet the amount of damage this administration has done is still completely ungauged, unmeasured.
Personal. F*cking personal, this Lieberman sh*t.
TRex,
well done
this should be on the news, every night
with a companion piece on the Iraqis slaughtered and maimed
people think of war as a football game, go team
not reality
Beautifully told, TRex. Thanks.
For those who could use a laugh about now, here’s a movie file of the TDS on the Connecticut primary:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..e-primary/
Someone just reminded me of my favorite Credence Clearwater Revival song. Here it is, along with “Who’ll Stop The Rain”:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..n-fogerty/
good to hear your stepson is doing OK… if he needs the shrinks, he should make himself available – they are very down-to-earth… I was impressed with the dedication of the VA staff, but clinic was always packed, booked… I’m sure it’s much worse now…
The RINO Hunters are going after Chafee in the primary (9/12). Will it backfire and yield a dem senate seat? Food for thought…
Cripes… how goopers get paid to do this stuff…
…pressing hard to achieve one of the group’s still-unfulfilled goals: replacing incumbent members of Congress it views as too liberal with people who adhere to what the group describes as the inviolable conservative tenets of lower taxes and unbending fiscal discipline.
Sun-Tzu says:
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
Every time I read anything about someone dying in these horrible, ridiculous wars (which is, of course, every day now), I end up thinking about my own son. He’s 27 now and, naturally, the light of my life. I had five miscarriages before I was blessed with him, and two tubal pregnancies after, so he’s my one and only.
I think about him as a newborn, with that little peanut face just hours old. I think of him as a little guy, so funny and cute. “Hey, Mom, you wanna play fort?” I think about arguments we had when he was a teenager, slamming doors and me, “Call me when you get there!”
And I see him now, a kind and strong grown man with his life ahead of him. Someday a wife, and children, grandchildren. Good times and bad, happy enough, I hope.
And every single person, American, Iraqi, Lebanese, Israeli, it doesn’t matter, who has been killed in these monstrous wars is the same person as my son. Loved by someone. Loved someone. Unique, human, irreplaceable. Now gone, forever. For nothing but to put money in greedy men’s pockets.
Am I angry? Oh yes. It’s our time now.
Rayne as a side bar to your story. when I was in San Diego last month I met Paul Hackett and heard him speak on a panel discussion on the war. His was encouraging young progressives to join the military, one as a means to counter how wingnuttery the military has become and that it is a great place for some people. It was the first time I parted ways with him on ideas. I come from a military family, both parents served in WWII, sister & ex were USAF, uncles, cousins in total all branches except Coast Guard. My line was I was the only one who did not serve except as a dependent wife for 11 yrs.
Why I opposed Hackett on young people joining the military is your very thought process. Not this administration and not this war. I would NEVER trust my children with BushCo. The military is a pretty ok place but it is the civilians who decide the policies that you have to worry about. This administration has so little value on human life.
All these kids going off to “fight for their country.” If they only knew who they were really fighting for.
In a sane time, our politicians would have said, global climate change is coming, oil is being depleted, so let’s find ways to avert those problems.
Try to imagine what several hundred billion dollars, spread out over thousands of new companies with bright people and bright ideas, might have accomplished. How many people could be educated to meet that demand, how many new jobs would have been created.
Instead, death, wholesale destruction and corruption. This country has gone crazy and stupid.
You know who I kind of feel sorry for right now? Katherine Harris. After throwing the 2000 election for Bush, she’s well on her way to winning a Republican primary for a Senate seat, but big-name Republicans won’t even give her the time of day. Now she has to sit and watch as big-name Republicans fall all over each other to support a man who just lost a Democratic primary for a Senate seat. The irony has to be killing her.
Oh hufNpuf…I send good thoughts your way, hoping that your son will be safe if he is called or no. You are not alone in this, if it is any consolation.
Hilde — what you described sounds a lot like my stepson’s experience. Greeted with roses like liberators. Pah. What a crock. More like these troops risked their lives to provide security for a pillaging, the scale of which we have never before seen. Billions of dollars, some in cash, gone missing — and all we have to show for it is broken or bruised family and friends, here and in Iraq.
Rayne @ 84
Exactly. I am not alone, there are THOUSANDS, maybe millions now, who each know a best friend, a fellow church member, a brother, a cousin, a neighbor or a coworker that has left to serve their nation only to return scarred, wounded, sick, in pain, or otherwise permanently altered from the human being that came before they left on a war of choice. IF they came back at all. A choice who Joey Lies still says today that he would still make.
If you and your best friend are in a restaurant and someone comes over to your table and picks a fight with you and your best friend gets a knife to his ribs, you are gonna hate the person who instigated the fight in the first place and be personally offended that someone would have the audacity to pick a fight like that out of the blue. Fuck you! is not a foreign policy.
at school, a lot of “my” kids have fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers in the military… the level of stress, tension, problems with the kids went WAY up this past year… you know the families are under tremendous strain and the children bring it to school with them… very discouraging to watch… and much, much harder to educate them…
Fresh out of seminary, I served a parish in St. Louis with a parochial school. Not the school to get away from “those people” in the public schools, but a school that was about 2/3 from the neighborhood and 1/3 from the parish itself.
Shortly after the first Gulf War began, I was leading chapel for the kids, and I asked “How many of you have someone you live with – dad, mom, brother, sister – serving in the Gulf? Not just in the military, but serving overseas in the Middle East?” About a third raised their hands, and most of the teachers were shocked. I wasn’t – it was the kind of neighborhood where the military looked like a good career move for kids where college wasn’t highly likely or affordable. Get some discipline, get some life skills, get some employment skills, maybe even make a career of it. Then I asked “How many of you know someone from your neighborhood or have a more distant relative – uncle, aunt, grandparent – serving in the Gulf?” Almost every hand went up.
Now those kids are about the age that TRex saw in the airport . . .
I haven’t thought about them in quite a while, but I’m praying for them, their families, and their neighbors tonight.
Thanks, TRex!
What an amazing community this is.
My sisters boy whom I helped raise was over there for a year. ( My sister is a single mom) The previous squad had lost eight KIA. My nephew’s crew lost one there and one back here to PTSD. The reason I write is that for that entire year every time the phone rang, and I saw it was my sister, I would instantly be enraged frightened and sick to my stomache. He survived and is making his way back to being normal.
Chicken George and his crew have wrecked and demoralized this country. I will never forgive him for for this reckless and incompetent action. For what it matters and what it’s worth my family has fought in every war this country was ever in , save one.
UptownNYChick @
37
Isn’t that how drug dealers looking for recruits are supposed to behave?
TeddySanFran @ 98
I agree…it is such a pleasure to be amongst such fine adults. I feel honored you all have welcomed me like you have and its a pleasure to hang with you folks.
thanks Trex – no snark tonight
And Joe was on the NewsHour tonight talking about how he thought the troops should come home should be decided by the generals in Iraq, not by politicians in Connecticut or DC.
As if.
Deluded or lying? I can’t decide.
Bastard, for certain.
UPDATE:
I just got off the phone with Dr. Turtle.
The soldier died in flight on his way to Germany. He couldn’t talk but for a minute told me to call him back in 10 minutes.
I hope these criminals in Washington D.C.
are happy. My prayers go out to the family of this soldier. ( I cannot release his name)
neokneme @ 88
Shrug. Their call. Speaking as someone who just cheered the ousting of a big-name incumbent, I’m not going to criticise. I don’t even think it matters. I think that seat’s going to go blue no matter who the Republicans put up, and they know it. There are obvious parallels with Lieberman–even the media will have trouble missing them–but I don’t think you’re going to see hordes of Democrats lining up to support old Linc if and when he loses.
katymine @ 10:21 pm (#91) – Sure makes you think, doesn’t it? For the last two decades we’ve been trying to build a mobile military that we can send quickly to just about any part of the world and win a war. In the right hands, it could be used to stop genocides, prevent wars, and keep the peace. In the hands of this Administration, it’s been like a loaded gun in the hands of a five-year old.
T-Rex,
The universe conspired to send you to CT and bear witness for us all. Thank you
My tinfoil hat has been warming up the last few weeks. Unusual for me but it won’t stop.
Last night I had the same thought as others did, from an earlier thread: Ned Lamont needs to stay off of small planes.
Today I had this one: There’s method in “their” madness. “They” are breaking the military purposefully. When all hell breaks open, when Iran, Syria, Saudi, Pakistan and India go up in flames along with Iraq, Israel and Lebanon, they will moan and groan and say, “Oh dear. The military is broken. We’ve only got nukes left to fight this… so bombs away!”
I’m taking off the tinfoil and putting on my nightcap.
Sleep well, doggies.
I can’t believe it. I read it here and get something on the phone. I can’t breathe.
Good heartfelt post, TRex. Glad to meet you in the blogger’s corral last night at the hotel.
onward,
cosmo
Katymine-
It was good to talk to you last night.
Good lord. Was that just last night?
JC is doing splendidly. He made a new friend while I was gone, John, who house sat for me so he could have a couple of days of peace and quiet and a place all to himself. (And who doesn’t need that every now and then?)
But yeah, Juan spent his nights snuggling up as close to John as he could get, apparently. When I talked to John on the phone tonight, he said, “Juan Carlos is sooooo beautiful.”
I said, “He could be as ugly as a mud fence and I would still love him just as much. It’s the sweetness that’s the important part.”
And frankly, I may well make that my criteria in selecting a mate when it comes down to it. It’s the sweetness, stupid.
It is a crime, a true war crime how many have died in this misbegotten war.
But to Bush and Cheney and Condi and Rummy it is just a tool to use to propel their agenda.
That is sick.
-GSD
P.S. 61% of those exit polled in CT didn’t want Holy Joe to run as an Independent if he lost.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..NlYwNtdHM-
Cujo359
That’s right. That’s exactly right…
Trex, your story made my eyes sting with tears too.
If anyone wants to hear some fine reporting on the military’s one and only burn unit, NPR had two stories. Warning get out your kleenex.
Army Burn Center Sees Some of Worst War Wounds
A Wounded Soldier Sets His Goals
This Iraq disaster hasn’t made us safer. It’s killling our young people, and the Taliban is taking Afganistan back. Heckuva job Bush and Joe.
This story is why we’ve got to take back Congress.
Frank Probst @ 92
And this is a bad thing?
Karma’s a bitch, man. And she knows where you live.
Welcome home, TRex.
Nice to see you tonight.
I checked in expecting Top 10 Post-Lieberyouth Jobs for Disemployed Cheeseburger Thugs.
I was not expecting this.
I understand some of the cooler heads saying “Perhaps a full and immediate withdrawal is not the best plan just now” in light of the possibility of an all-out civil war breaking loose. If the Oil Party wants to dismiss that idea as “Cut and Run,” that’s fine, but we need to hear SOME kind of plan for a phased withdrawal or I am going to think that they’re not serious in any way.
They don’t have to “cut and run,” but they need to fucking Stop and Think, because “Yeeha, it’s on to Iran!” is not a plan. It’s a suicide mission.
How weird is this TRex? You witness the call, write it down and I get confirmation on the other end.
katymine — yeah, I’d have to disagree with Hackett on his tactic.
I think he discounts what happens to some of these guys while serving. Granted, we have a minority that are going to do horrific things and are likely winger-types to begin with, the authoritarian power worshippers. But many to most will see things more progressively than they ever did before.
This was the one blessing that came out of this mess; my stepson had spent most of his time in his mother’s house, and had acquired a few biases that torqued me off. He had a disrespect for history and an issue with non-white persons (primarily immigrants). He leaned right.
That’s all gone now, wiped away by whatever happened. Still has a bit of a libertarian streak, not unlike his father, but he now leans left. Don’t get him started on healthcare, whoowee…
But I hate the think of the price we all paid for this shift in consciousness.
HopeSAT – breathe, Sweetheart – you gotta breathe…
We are going to find a way through this.
One time it hit me was back in the summer of ‘04, when I was working on the campaign. I was getting new tires, and they were being really slow, so all of us waiting got to talk.
One guy had been in Iraq for the invasion. He talked about how they stayed in one of Saddam’s palaces, and saw the gold fixtures, swam in the pool.
He and three friends had signed up together in North Carolina after 9/11. All went to Iraq. He was the only one who came back.
HSAT #114: Scary.
meta – I am way behind on the comments – trying to catch up two days’ worth (and what a two days!) – but I saw the comments on the commercial, and would be glad to be involved if you still need folks. I am in LA, happy to help however.
Has it been 10 minutes yet?
Hope,
Take a breath, for me hon. Take another.
Yes, it’s a small world. But it’s not weird. Just small. We just think it’s big.
Is it the same soldier you think?
HopespringsATurtle @ 115
Hopey, I hope to god we’re not talking about the same soldier. I want that baby to meet her father someday.
Right about now.
Hope — Yeah, that’s weird. But we’re here with you, okay?
I was on a flight from Europe in 2004 with a planeload of soldiers on leave from Iraq. They had been there a year. Some were going home to see children they had not seen. A sargeant told me they were fighting a good cause. I spoke against the war, and several men told me they would never go back after serving their time. They knew they were fodder in Bush’s war. I’ve often wondered how many of them survived.
HopeSAT, TRex — Karmic. Cosmic.
This is a very, very small world now.
And I don’t believe there are coincidences, either.
I pray for the repose of the soul of our soldier this evening. God keep his family safe and help them through this difficult time.
God keep your husband safe, too, Hope. Tell him we wish him the very best; we are honored to have him serve us and our country on behalf of soldiers not unlike my stepson.
Who is with me in a caravan to CT for Election Day? We could use Indianapolis as a gathering point, it’s centrally located and on I70 with 4 major highways feeding here – I65, I74, I69, I70. I70 will get us to NYC, picking up folks along the way. I’d be happy to organize a trip around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Monument Circle before heading out for CT.
This is making me very sad.
and furious. Really, really white hot angry.
I have so much anger in me towards the war mongers and profiteers that all I can say is, “V for Vendetta.”
And I’m a Pacifist!
Mocha Dem @ 106
– HEAR! HEAR!
I think I better turn in, folks.
Losing my ability to look at this rationally…
night, all.
sorry…phone. It is the same soldier as here in TRex’s telling. He was injured by an IED and had burns over 80% of his body. He never had a chance. He was the only CCAT flight yesterday (Germany time). He died 22 minutes into the flight.
Just think of the Lost Generation of veterans who will return, more or less intact – physically, at least. How many will be unable to cope, or will lose it eventually due to the horrors they witnessed and participated in…homelessness, domestic abuse, drug abuse. Did we learn nothing in Vietnam?
May he rest in peace. Condolences to his family and his friends. Blessings to you and your husband, Hope.
oh, crap, HopeSAT / TRex
Night Patrick..I’ll finish your ‘5 odd things’ soon…
HopespringsATurtle @ 134
God keep him and his.
Rest easy, soldier.
Punaise,
We learned that those who came back and spoke against the war would get the smearing of their lives 30 years later.
What a fucking disgrace. I am getting boiling mad too.
I hope that Cheney and Bush and Mehlman and Rove keep up with their attacks and talking points. It is going to infuriate about 60% of America.
-GSD
TRex @
114
Well, I admit to feeling sorry for her with a bit of Schadenfreude sprinkled on top…
But every time I hear about how much Bush values loyalty, I get this mental image of Harris. (Okay, it’s that picture of her holding the opossum, but still.)
I’m speechless.
punaise @ 135
We learned that those of us who did not go should greet them, not turn our backs; we should help them, not shun them; we should support them, not leave them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
So, how’s that VA budget looking this year? . . .
That is soooo synchronistic and weird. I have never witnessed anything like this happen on the Internet ever. I’ve never seen two members of a community share an experience like this before.
Damn. Sorry for your loss. :(
Normally, I am not the kind of guy to show a lot of emotion.
Right now I have a big lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
I can’t do this, keep crying into my keyboard. No wonder I have sticky keys, must be the salt.
(Doesn’t help to have NOVA on PBS in the background covering military technology used in Iraq.)
Damnitall, this is all so damned personal. For ALL of us.
You know, I think I have to consider telling my Senators this, especially Carl Levin who’s on the Armed Services Committee. I’m going to call his office tomorrow and ask what his schedule is and when he’ll be in town so I can tell him to his face this is personal, and Lieberman simply doesn’t get it.
Peterr – the VA budget always sucks…
Peterr @ 143
Swords to plowshares…
I’m just sorta numb right now its weird.
They have been planning this shit since Vietnam. There is a rogue element, a segment of society that are deeply disturbed and sociopathic. They are currently running our gov’t. And Joe Lieberman is dangerously close to falling into the abbyss where they live.
punaise @ 10:46 pm (#135) – Did we learn nothing in Vietnam?
Depends who you mean by we. Clearly, some among us in this country have learned nothing. Most of our national politicians seem to have not absorbed the political lessons of Vietnam. The military sort of knew the lessons of Vietnam, but they had other things on their minds. What happened to the Powell Doctrine for cryin’ out loud?
The rest of us seem to have remembered to extent we were or weren’t touched by it.
TRex, I hope and pray that babies father will be ok but then I also know the pain and suffering that he will endure to survive 80% burns. In my 34 yr Nursing career, there is only one man I know who survived burns that severe and that is Phoenix’s Shefferly, a policeman who was rearended and his gas tank exploded.
If it was Gods will to spare the new father the earthly pain, remember there will be a great guardian angle for a young life, his own child.
And, thanks for sharing the fun last night, if you did not hear, from all over America, we brought down Senator Reids email down with too much traffic. Teehee… ;)
Get some rest & chat with you later
finifini – I posted a response to the editorial content question, and there are also some dangling participles wrt who shall do what for friday -
also, a veterans issues group would be a good SRP possibility.
Blessings to this soldier, to his family, to Hope’s hubby who, through harm’s way, gave what comfort he could.
Blessings to Trex for sharing this family’s story.
Blessing to the universal life force that compelled Trex to write this story tonight.
I hold the family, all the families who’ve suffered and are suffering, in my heart and ask for reminders that the human heart is infinite because otherwise, my will break into a jillion little pieces.
Frank Probst @ 10:48 pm – Well, I admit to feeling sorry for her with a bit of Schadenfreude sprinkled on top
For me, it’s all schadenfruede. She sounds like a perfectly awful woman.
I just bought a vidcam. I’m gonna film soldiers in the hospital. I left this in a email to Meta. I don’t know what we can do with this footage, you guys think about it. But we might be able to make a powerful statement about why we need to get out of this fucking war.
We need to take up a fund for the baby.
Anybody up for that?
Hope, do you have enough info to be able to direct the fund to the right people?
Fini FiniTOOBZ! @ 143
We have something good and powerful on our side. I can feel it.
How about intercutting patients suffering with footage of some of Joe’s more fatuous speeches on the war?
I never served in the military, could have gone to Viet Nam but wasn’t drafted and didn’t volunteer. I’m too old now. I am antiwar.
I live less than a mile from a VA hospital. Those of you who have been around disabled vets, what would happen if I would just go over there and ask to see some guys who served in Iraq? Just to let them know I care?
How do you think I would be received?
Rayne @ 156
Right now I think this family deserves their privacy. Grief is private. Maybe sometime in the future we could talk about this, but I think that would be rather intrusive.
About 1 month ago ,an air force offcier in afganistan died.His name was Forest.He was a 2nd cousin,I had only met him in passing at one or 2 family gatherings.The pain of his passing destroyed what will probably be my 91 year old grandmothers last family gathering.
There is nothing in the world that is sufficient payback for makeing the old women in my famiy cry
I have no hatred for the man who killed him,as I would be in the mountains of oregon doing what he is doing were our positions revesed.However……
People wonder how our troops can be found doing the dirty,terrible things men feel free to do in war,lisen up.
His twin brother mike was just deployed for the seconed time to Iraq
I have a name. and I have my husbands cell number (he has it all the time, its his medical pager). He’s a t work now but I can talk to him tonight and see if we can do something.
For those that are interested, on August 11th the INDI Film Sir No Sir will be showing in Seattle for at least a week.
NORTHWEST FILM FORUM
1515 12TH AVE
SEATTLE, WA 98122
(206) 267.5380
http://www.nwfilmforum.org
Go to the website if you have a chance. This film is about the real Anti-war movement during the Vietnam War, a story that was buried by the Noise Machine and the lapdog press.
HopespringsATurtle @ 156
Fine idea, but be careful with the soldiers. For the same reason you didn’t want to mention any names earlier, you probably don’t want to put any personally identifiable pictures out there without permission.
TRex @ 161
err, I’m with TRex on this…
Neuro #158:
Dunno, but you can volunteer through DAV (see my link upthread) or maybe the VA hospital has some opportunities of their own.
Just thinking this thought makes you more caring that all of the Walker Bush Cheney families combined since forever, BTW.
but what about the 2500 other kids (or 3000 or 4000 or more)
TRex:
Thank you for that heartrending account. There is nothing anyone could say that would make us more determined to bring about a real change in how America is governed.
Maybe you didn’t notice but I took exception to your post of late Tuesday night. I’m often in complete agreement with you and that is certainly true tonight,
neurophius @ 159
neurophius – I will call my sister and ask her. She did a lot of her late med-school work in a VA hospital, and she might have a good idea. I will post tomorrow what I hear from her, if that sounds good to you.
also, there are a number of existing charities for children of fallen servicemen and women – will get some links . . .
neurophius @ 159
It would be well recieved. Most times these guys are away from home. Lots of ‘local VA’s are hundreds of miles from home. Any kindness is appreciated and noticed IMHO by God.
al-Scooter @ 158
Al- can you email this suggestion to me or meta so I don’t forget?
TRex — one of the first things that new mother will think about is how the hell she is going to do this by herself, how she is going to buy the diapers and the formula and on and on…
My sister-in-law lost her husband when her son was only two years old; reality set in quickly, even through the fog of grief, when it cries in your arms and tugs on your skirts.
We don’t have to intrude. We only have to put the funds in a kitty for when the time is right, and it only has to arrive in a plain brown envelope.
I’m earmarking money now for her. My paycheck won’t be here for two more weeks, will be the right time.
I think one good way to honor this soldier would be to volunteer at a VA Hospital… I’m sure there is a coordinater who can set it up.
TRex,
When you were raising funds to get to Connecticut, I had a strong intuition that there would be something important happening on the journey itself.
Some deeper kind of connection is developing. Thank you for being the anguished voice speaking the truth.
—————egr
HopespringsATurtle @
134
Horrible, horrible.
Egad, what a terrible story. I heard Lieberman on Larry King tonight and he still says he’d vote to go into Iraq, even knowing what he knows now.
Bastard.
May he and all the war pigs rot in hell.
How sad to get this story as we sit in relatively safe places. Ned was first on the News Hour tonight and he was clear and strong. A good candidate and a great replacement for Lieberman, who later spouted the neocom line. Let’s hope Bush does not buy into the zionist line and bomb Iran in order to control the next election. (See The Nation, Max Blumenthal, Birth Pangs of a New Christian Zionism.) After all he is keeping all those terriorists away from our borders and “keeping us safe.” Such a fear monger!
OldCoastie @ 166
Nevertheless, I think it’s a good idea for later. This is the strangest connection I’ve ever had to this sort of tragedy, but it’s a connection.
punaise’s question is a good one, is there something we can do for more of them? I can’t think of anything, beyond continuing doing what we’re doing politically, of course.
links for charities for children – the third one is for Iraq and Afghanistan vets families
http://www.afcef.org/
http://www.vailarmedforces.com/
http://www.optruth.org/index.p…..;Itemid=37
http://www.nmfa.org/site/PageServer
This is the saddest connection of events–post to comment–I’ve ever read on FDL. And yet, it does not seem strange. Hope, I don’t know how you bear the pain. I don’t know how anyone does. Bless you all.
Peterr @ 164
My original plan was to get the soldier to say something about “Taking America Back” something to use in our “Blogger Ad” But I will take every precaution, and respect all whom I deal with and their privacy.
and meanwhile Bush jokes about not finding WMDs under the furniture in the Oval Office. Bastard. May history judge him with its full fury.
Thanks al-Scooter, astralplame, Hope.
astralplame, I’ll look for word from you tomorrow night.
HSAT, my pleasure. That’s your website linked via your name?
Rayne, I appreciate where you’re coming from, but no. Absolutely not. If I had known that writing this would in any way make this family vulnerable to public scrutiny, I would not have posted it.
Their grief is private to handle their way. And I think Dr. Turtle could get in trouble for divulging something outside of doctor-patient confidentiality. So, I am absolutely coming out against this idea. And I’m sure that Jane, Christy, and Pach would agree with me on this.
It’s not cool to aggressively contact people who are in pain, no matter how good your intentions are. You can end up causing more damage than you ameliorate.
TRex @ 161
I agree with TRex, our knowledge of the circumstances and the eventual outcome just does not seem right to invade their privacy.
I am glad many want to do something but maybe we need to do it in this young man’s memory. Volunteer at your local VA center or the USO. Work with the outreach center for Veteran Affairs and see what you can do to help. Write your senators & congresspersons to fully fund the VA.
LindaR @ 176
Oh, that’s awful. How completely bloody awful.
I agree. Quiet diaper fund. I will check on it tonight.
punaise, I wish we could do it for them all. We did it for the children of 9/11.
But this one child came to us.
Bidden or unbidden, as Jung said.
My soldier kid said his unit will be heading to Iraq before the end of the year.
It will be his third trip there.
I want our kids home. Now. I don’t care if it is cutting and running. It beats them dying needlessly.
Thank you, TRex, for posting that account.
HopespringsATurtle @ 181
From your comments here, I had no doubt that your sensitivity would be there with your camera – but wanted to put it out there as a reminder to us all.
katymine @ 185
Amen to that.
It is tragic to see the price we pay for the benefit of the defense contractors. They need a war so that their product gets used and they have to supply new equipment. I wonder how much kickback someone like VP Cheney collects for keeping the bucks rolling to the defense contractors. Our dead and maimed soldiers are just collateral damage in this business venture.
I agree with Trex- leave this poor family alone- they don’t need strangers intruding now.
Al-S at 182
yes. click my profile, link to email. Thanks.
Hope–
We are there for you. Please take a few breaths for me. Want to come along on a walk through the forest in the morning?
Keep us posted please.
((((((((HOPE and Dr. Turtle)))))))
I’m with TRex on this, my heart goes out to this family but we really should not intrude on this horrible time of their lives.
The story told here with TRex, the flight, the election and HopespringsATurtle connecting with the same soldier is the kind of story that would be good to get out to the wider media.
But what drives me nuts is that it won’t because it would be shouted down by the wingers, ‘You are politicizing the tragedy!”
My feeling is that These kind of personal stories need to be told, because other wise we only get old men scaring us into sending more people to die.
Why don’t they show more war photos and video? Tasteless? The privacy of the people? Yes. But they also don’t show them because they are HORRIFIC and people would say, STOP! I’d like to hear from more soldiers talking AGAINST the war. Who is this war’s John Kerry? Of course as someone said, they will be vilified for speaking out and some are fobidden from talking.
Not enough people in America are truly touched by the bad things war does and because of that it can be balanced out by the abstract “It is protecting us from scary terrorists.”
We had to be scared into this war, “Mushroom Cloud” because nothing else would have worked.
I’m sick of being scared by these people.
TRex — I don’t want personal info. I want no direct contact. I don’t advocate that. I never asked that.
I’ve had children, though. I know what it’s like to be in the checkout line wondering if I had enough money in my checking account to cover the cost of that week’s diapers.
This whole f*cking mess is personal. The pain you saw in the aisle is NOTHING compared to the pain that new mother is going to go through ALONE.
We can be there for her without being anywhere near her.
If it means ultimately that I send my money to a fund for veterans’ children, that’s fine — and I’ll have to hope like hell that it’s not like writing a check after 9/11 to the Red Cross.
Rayne @ 190
Yes, I have that feeling too — though of course respecting the privacy is crucial.
I was visiting a friend’s house when her husband got a call from his son that one of the son’s friends had been injured in Iraq, and another in the same unit was killed. My friend had enjoyed driving me around that day in her brand new H3, making fun of how I better not tell my MoveOn.org friends.
My best friend from high school, and she just couldn’t wrap her brain around the connection between those two things.
Our kids are dying for oil profits. That’s pretty much it.
HopespringsATurtle I didn’t see your comments about Dr. Turtle when I posted the links to the NPR story on the burn unit. The NPR story about the critical work Dr. Turtle and the others are doing was very moving.
I did a quick google search and maybe this page on videography legal FAQs would be helpful for your blogger ad. Scroll to the bottom for the answer “When do I need model releases, and where can I find standard forms?”
One of greatest things about Democrats/Progressives is their ten gallon hearts…
One of the worst things about Democrats/Progressives is their really big hearts.
That is why we are who we are AND it is why they call us wimps… AND I do not care. We shared the sorrow, we joined together, brainstormed because we always want to solve it and then do what we can to make it better.
TRex @ 183
You misunderstand me TRex. I have no intention of contacting this soldiers family. But I think to put to gether an ‘anonymous’ diaper fund is never inappropriate. I can’t possible comment on any kind of detail. But we put a little fund aside, I know we could get that to the wife. My husband would not be betraying any confidentiality by giving this woman an envelope of cash. She probably won’t come to Germany. She will stay home and wait. But military channels can be used to deliver the money. Like I said, I will ask him about this tonight.
Oh my. So that’s it, then.
Peace be with him.
HopespringsATurtle @
116
Okay, here’s the deal.
We could establish a fund for moms (and dads) made into single parents by the war. We could call it the Firedog Formula Fund or something.
Let’s just please not use the word “diaper”. It’s one of my top ten least favorites in the English language.
TRex @ 207
You slay me!
TR @ 189
don’t let the republicans frame the issue with that “cutting and running” shit. it isn’t cutting and running. it’s recognizing that whatever we hoped to accomplish by going into iraq is long past achieveing.
what bushco can never admit is, no matter what we do now, it will come to a bad end. the only question we need to ask is how many more american soldiers and marines do we want to die for nothing?
how long will we allow bushco to remain willfully and blindly stupid and stubborn? enough is more than enough.
TRex -
This is a very good idea.
The Firedoglake Family Foundation.
F3.
We’ll have to run it by Jane in the morning.
OK..I’m down. No ‘D” word. I’m just trying to be a conduit for good TRex. Just like you. Just like every firepup I’ve ever had interaction with. And so it is.
HopeSAT — incoming swimdeep.
If you ever need to talk or vent or anything, please don’t hesitate to email me. I’ll call you. Sometimes talking to people in the same situation is more helpful than our closest friends and family.
‘night all – kiss your kids, your puppies and/or your kitties…
Hope,
My son is home from his three weeks in Korea tonight, we picked him up and brought him home. He’s ready to go active now, and I cannot find words to express the fear I have.
We’re leaving before the sun comes up tomorrow to visit his grandparents (my folks). I pray to all gods everywhere that it’s not the last trip I can take with him.
Godspeed to you and Dr. Turtle.
TRex, thanks for a moving post.
I wish I could pull some kind of smart snark out, but I haven’t got it in me now.
Take care folks,
BC
Rayne @ 147
OldCoastie @ 210
BC – wishing your son a safe return
fahrender @ 209
You’re right. We can’t allow them to frame the debate with the words of their choice, words that minimize and trivialize how their actions are impacting our lives and the lives of people in other countries.
I’ve never been active politically before but now…Now I’m angry. So very, very angry.
fahrender @ 208
You’ve hit the nail on the head there, with a sledgehammer. Long past all those flowery dreams and those neo-con wishes. Whatever we hope to achieve NOW can’t be achieved with guns and smart bombs. Time to come home, and try something else.
Molly Ivins’ first rule of holes: Quit digging!
One time YEARS ago at Eschaton we were talking about the troops in Iraq and how we wanted to help so we donated money to the USO and put little notes in like ‘From a liberal blogger who supports the troops.’ It was a nice moment.
A fund derived from this specific tragedy to help is a good thing. It is what shows our compassion.
It pushes against the fear mongers.
When the media wades through left wing blogs looking for “angry blogger” comments, this is what they will miss. Our hearts touched. Our tears dripping, our wallets open.
I’m sure bloggers on the right could and would do the same thing, most are human after all. But as I pointed out above, would they had the same response as Trex to the scene he witnessed? Would they have written that story instead of a “we need to nuke ‘em till they glow for killing our soldiers!” story.
I doubt it. Their response to war and death is usually “MORE WAR! More Death! Hey Iran, want a piece of this?! No. How about you Syria?”
Night Old Coastie
Night BC. I knew Cadet would make it back…especially from Chicago…lol.
Rayne…incoming..
Bargain Countertenor — sending good thoughts your way for you, your son and your family. At one time we’d thought and hoped my stepson would be stationed in Korea; I have a friend who was stationed there, enjoyed it thoroughly and learned a lot while on tour. I’ll hope that your son has a tour like my friend’s tour, and that you’ll be able to laugh together as he regales you someday soon with stories about kimchee and soju. Oh good gravy, tell him to be careful with that soju; it ain’t sake by a long chalk.
punaise,
I’m afraid I was unclear. He’s home now, and he had a wonderful time in the ROK. He has his senior year of college to complete before he graduates (as an engineer) and is commissioned in the Army.
I’m still scared. You raise them, and you have to let them live their lives. But they never cease being your children.
Thanks for thoughts. I’ll hold them in reserve, if it’s okay with you.
BC
Rayne,
He’s already experienced soju. He wanted to bring a liter of it home, but didn’t think he could clear customs with it.
He’s 21, but he’s still a naif in some ways. I told him that he could bring limited amounts of liquor home duty-free. His right as a citizen.
BC
G’nite all…. after last night nail bitter, this was a good night. Sad but good. Rest up TRex, we will need some snark soon….
Okay, someone find out if a VA-affiliated program already exists to provide aid to families in this situation. If they vet out and have a good record of delivering aid swiftly and efficiently, we’ll make our donations to them. If we can’t find a good organization, we’ll have to think of something else.
What a night. TRex you’re post was touching and magnificant. There are a thousand little strandsof life that come together here and coalese in a tapestry of light and hope.
We are making a difference. I can feel it.
Can’t you?
If we withdraw or “redeploy” frm Iraq and the place turns into a bloody civil war battleground (what is it now?) that is not our fault.
Whose fault is it? Who has brought us to this place?
George W. Bush
Dickhead Cheney
Donald Rumsfeld
Condoleeza Rice
Colin Powell
John Bolton
Douglas Feith
George Tenet
Stephen Hadley
David Addington
Irving Libby
Judy Miller
The list goes on…
Oh, and
Joe Lieberman
There is no honor in “Stay the course, keep on killing and getting our soldiers killed because we are too chickenhawk-chickenshit to admit that we’ve told a bunch of lies and made a bunch of stupid mistakes.”
I never believed in any war (except Afghanistan as originally intended). I was born in 1965 and learned enough as a baby from Vietnam on Walter Cronkite and Sixty Minutes to know better than to trust anyone with my life and weather or not I would kill someone, anyone.
1940’s My Grandfather (first generation Italian American) who was among the first Americans on the scene in Hiroshima, shortly after had a nervous breakdown that would permanently separate him from his wife and three kids.
1971 Six months living in Killeen, TX, Fort Hood, on base. lesson number one and a horror I will never forget. When someone tells me they lived on a base I just want to cry and say how sorry I am. 1982 My Uncle, organic marathon running health nut that he was, died at 35 probably from soaking in agent orange. Cancer consumed his entire body for several years until he was, well nothing, nothing at all. I miss him so very much to this very day. Now it’s 1983, time for me to register with the SS. I did it against every instinct in my core. You join the military you kill, you get killed, at the beckoning of a bunch of strangers. If your lucky you’re just an enabler.
I understand very well why those kids are in the airport. They (most of them) are running on survival instinct. Work in a service industry for the rest of your life, if the economy will just hold out for another fifty years, or join. We hold them hostage by giving no other choice, lying to them and ourselves, and failing to have a draft for all, in any time of conflict.
It takes a lot of guts in poor kids who decide not to serve. I salute them every single day. I mourn for all who do.
Oh bloody hell.
And meanwhile, we’re slashing funding to take care of soldiers’ brain injuries.
Just great.
Bastards.
Congress appears ready to slash funding for the research and treatment of brain injuries caused by bomb blasts, an injury that military scientists describe as a signature wound of the Iraq war.
House and Senate versions of the 2007 Defense appropriation bill contain $7 million for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center — half of what the center received last fiscal year.
Proponents of increased funding say they are shocked to see cuts in the treatment of bomb blast injuries in the midst of a war.
“I find it basically unpardonable that Congress is not going to provide funds to take care of our soldiers and sailors who put their lives on the line for their country,” says Martin Foil, a member of the center’s board of directors.
Eureka Springs, AR:
Your last name wouldn’t just happen to be Mangione, would it?
Bargain Countertenor @ 222
consider it indefinite. I have a 17 year old son.
Oh, and
Karl Rove
(Remember, there’s no such thing as public policy, it’s all politics, all the time, even the wars)
I really like the:
and it doesn’t have the ‘d’ word. Well done.
Let me know TRex, what you want me to do.
HopespringsATurtle @ 232
Find out what organizations exist who have a good reputation. Then we’ll set up a paypal account for it and make a button.
Firedoglake Family Foundation.
Because families take care of families.
I remember reading about how several of the people in the cabinet and closest advisors of chimpy all have some sort of ‘horror’ during childhood. These people are sociopathic, disturbed, mentally ill. And they have inflicted their pyschosis on us and the rest of the world.
Hello, people
TRex @ 235
Good call – we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
It sounds like snark to say “Yeah, because the brain-damaged are the Repub base.” But, literally, permanently damaged, wounded & unable to fight back, or too busy nursing our permanently damaged relatives to have the time, strength, or money to fight back: THAT, I truly believe, is part of the Official Republican Policy Towards America’s Military. They shoot flocks of pen-raised little birds for fun, and if they could figure out how to get away with it, they’d do the same with our children. Except that people like Cheney probably don’t have the guts to face an angry six-year-old who might find a rock to throw, and Bush couldn’t win a battle of wits with anything smarter than a tank-bred perch.
Thank you for writing this, TRex. When someone asks whether it’s worth wasting time on “mere politics”, I’ll use your essay as an example of why we who are lucky enough to be in a position to fight politically have a responsibility to fight for all of those who have lost their chances at the hands of the corrupt monsters now wrecking our country and our planet from the corridors outside the Oval Office.
Find out what organizations exist who have a good reputation. Then we’ll set up a paypal account for it and make a button. Suzanne @ 237
Can’t we just do this? The Vets organizations I know are for disabled vets. I’m one. I can check on others but how cool would it be to just do our own? A single time even. Just out of the coincidence of it all. Just a thought.
Someone once described W as “…using the whole world to work out his issues.”
IMO, he’s screwing that up, too.
On that happy note, sweet dreams everyone!
Well, alright then, my fine firedog friends. I think that’s about it for me. It’s been a long-ass day on not much sleep. Juan Carlos is hunkered down in my lap, urging me to tote him off to bed.
I think that’s enough saving the world for one night.
OT but Jane got a mention in the SF Chronicle regarding the Lamont victory:
article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..KDMLU1.DTL
(fingers and toes crossed – this is my first attempt at blockquote
night, TRex, you saurian monster, you.
OHMYGOD! SeveAudio’s here!
You didn’t tell me there were gonna be GAY people at this party!
Fuck this noise, I’m going to BED!
*slam*
It hasn’t been but two days since my guy said he, “couldn’t see one more brain-dead soldier..”
Notes to self:
One step at a time. Do what’s right in front of you. Today was actually a good day. We are making progress.
Goodnight, TRex, and thanks for telling this story. It certainly touched a lot of folks tonight. I’m out of here, too. Have a good evening everyone else, and if you haven’t checked out the Daily Show clip I linked to an hour or so ago, do it.
Sweet Dreams Al-Scooter
SteveAudio, we must be on opposite diurnal cycles. Hope you’re well. Out.
TR 11:07 pm — will hold a special place in my thoughts for you and your son. Keep us posted, okay? We’ll be here for you both.
TRex — Don’t fret. You did the right thing. You put humanity back into this week, reminded us in what must be the very best piece you have posted here, that it isn’t only about precincts and Get-Out-The-Vote and blogs and broken laptops and cellphones.
Okay, enough crying for the night. I’m one big puffy sodden box of used tissues, need to go to bed before I use up any more Kleenex.
Damn you TRex, no more persecution!
Someone remind me, whenever it is that they vote on those blogger awards, to nominate TRex for this piece.
Hi Steve-A
agree with Neurophius.
back to Ned / Joe. Josh gets it, finally:
Hope, there is a whole lot of work involved in starting a non-profit. I like TRex’s idea of finding a vetted, respectable organization (there has to be one) and donate through them.
Hey, HSAT, punaise, other random friends
Hope, or was I mis-reading what you wrote?
Hey SteveAudio, how are the MR-16 halogens tonight: spot, or flood?
Hi, SteveAudio.
What’s up with the track lighting?
Steve, you know there is only one solution for you, don’t you?
Suzanne
OMG no way. No non profit. Just a pass the hat around for this one mother that lost her husband tonight. Are there other implications?
I do not want to start a non-profit. Our plates are full to over-flowing. I want to get our people elected in November. The whole point was just to help out one, new widow with a newborn.
pUN AT 256
I love tpm.
Now stop that!
Neurophius: A while back, there was a discussion thread, where I mentioned that TRex had left a comment at my place when I used a “Wham!” song title as title for a blog post. I think his exact quote was “Dude! That’s so gay!”
From then on the conversation has taken a really strange turn!
and track lighting isn’t so gay? lol
Hey, it was in the house when I got here! Sheesh!
But I always did wonder about the glory hole in the master bath…
Steve I forgot…I read back over the threads the other night when I was al verklempt and wanted to thank you for that fabulous Savinon Blanc..
TRex said he was going to talk to Jane about it all in the morning so I guess we just have to wait to hear what they decide. There is that whole privacy issue – this woman’s grief was witnessed by a planeload of people. Having to suffer such a private grief while in a public space is just unimaginable.
There was a military guy, with a stupid nickname on CNN tonight, like “Col. John ‘Spider’ Smith”…anyone see that?
SteveAudio, with track lighting @ 268
too. much. in. for. mation. :~)
HSAT,
Thanks, I’m drinking some cheap Bordeaux right now.
I agree with Josh Marshall
“But really he’s just a pol who ignored his constituents, went into serious denial about a major foreign policy disaster, was more lockstep with the president’s non-policy than many Republicans, and got bounced by his constituents.
That’s politics. And that’s accountability. And, really? It’s not that big a deal.”
Lieberman has injected a whole lot more psychodrama into this situation than it deserves. He cosied up to Bush, he lost touch with his constituents, he ran a lousy campaign, a better candidate beat him. That’s democracy.
But for Joe, it has always been all about Joe, all the time.
No glory hole, just a small piece of track lighting, and mushroom carpet in the master B’room. Eww…
I hate him!!! I sent an email to CNN about that numb-nuts. Notice how he says, “weapons cachets” ? dumbass. Its ‘caches’ dumbshit.
I’ve heard him do it before. I tore into CNN’s lazy ass producer for not correcting him.
SteveAudio – some other Late Nate thread I’ll elaborate on the Anderson Valley (Mendocino County) pinot noirs we discovered the other day.
pinot noir…
Do you remember his name? Pleeeeze?
rorschach @ 232
rorschach- good to see you at the lake. Sorry was catching up on the thread. nope..
Anderson Valley (Mendocino County) pinot noirs
Nice. Too bad they’re not related to me (last name is Anderson, get it? never mind)
peanut noise?
Brig. Gen …”Spider”…it’s coming to me…
James ‘Spider’ Marks
yes!
at least I got the rank right
Mr. Audio, how goes it sir?
punaise @ 276
Not even a little taste tonight? You’re such a tease!
Anderson Valley Oatmeal Stout for me.
This really is a heartbreaking thread. Nite, all.
What a poignant story, TRex.
anybody been watching CNN? Massive terrorist plot foiled. Carry on baggage a thing of the past.
Night Dover…sleep well
No, Ed*ard, tell me more.
Was it the missing 11 Egyptian students?
great…on my way to Europe.
This really is a heartbreaking thread.
that’s why I’ll save wine chat for another time
FFToobZ: Pretty well.
punaise” I loves me some Pinot Noir, problem is that Mrs. Audio likes whites better. Although I have gotten her to enjoy some Chianti’s lately, and she prefers Cabs to Merlots, so that’s a good sign.
Thanks Hope, you as well.
BBC radio just tells me America is on Red Alert. Is there something I should be doing?
rorschach- good to see you at the lake. Sorry was catching up on the thread. nope..
Okay, it was a long shot, but a girl I’d a crush on back in undergrad was an Italian-American from Eureka Springs…
punaise:
Point taken, I’ll ratchet down the frivolity. I actually have something fairly serious to write about tonight, besides Joe, that is.
alert level red…and its not even October…
Is there anything higher than level red?
nope not in the civilian world
What do they call it next time somebody flies a plane into a building?
A Clinton blunder…
Not sure I buy this cow.
JWR @ 296
CNN, AP, and Reuters all say it is Britain that is at high alert, with a plot aimed at flight(s) from the UK to US. British flights are disallowing carryon luggage, not US flights.
From Reuters, in Washington Post:
Nothing here in the US about changing alert status. Yet.
CNN: “In Washington, FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said the agency is aware of the “ongoing situation in London” and will issue a statement later.”
UK foils plane terror plot
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/…..index.html
Is there anything higher than level red?
Level Blue, as in the Dems have won.
US on Orange Alert.
Speaking of a small world, this week you lovely folks here at fdl were supporting me–a complete stranger–in my work overseas.
In addition, there were prayers and energy support for 13-yr-old Russian Boris and the newborn baby from Uzbekisan, who were strangers to me before I saw them in our hospital.
A little love can go a long way, from the heartland of fdl to a desperate family from Tashkent.
I don’t buy it. Not at all. Its a what-ever-you-call-it…fake.
neurophius @ 303
mission accomplished……..?
egregious – So good to see you home, safe and sound.)
Good thing I came back through London before all this happened. Wow I don’t know how they can have people not do carryons. What about medicine, baby needs, canes, long list.
Anybody think this is any different thann the guys in Miami?
Thanks, kids, for the good wishes.
I handle it for the most part because I’m a military brat who married into the military so separations are what I know. But sometimes, especially when I read things like this and the diary over at DKos, it gets to me. Tonight, it’s getting to me.
Tomorrow is another day in the fight to end this debacle and bring them home, another day in the fight to take back our country.
is it on cnn now?
punaise,
when you get back into the wine discussion, I hope I’m here. I just discovered the greatest goat cheese I’ve ever had from the USA – from Arcata, CA. Humboldt Bay cheese company. Just up the road from Mendocino.
Golly. Everyone who’s anyone is here tonight.
I find myself in exalted company, once again.
TR…take me up on my offer
ArkSpr. on CNN now
Howdy Shoe…Got CNN?
So this plot, when was it supposed to be. I flew out on the 8th, evening hop from Heathrow to DC. I have occasionally thought about the danger of traveling, but would rather that it not have been my plane. Hope to live long enough to aggravate my future grandchildren :)
Hope, if you’re still there how are you doing? I’ll be around pretty much all night, yay jet lag.
Raw Story doesn’t have the terrorism thing, but they have this…
Kerry Endorses Lamont over Lieberman in General Election
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2….._0809.html
and this…
[Sen.] Clinton Urges Lieberman to “Search His Conscience” In Senate Bid
http://www.wnbc.com/politics/9654496/detail.html
Golly. Everyone who’s anyone is here tonight.
I find myself in exalted company, once again.
Thank you, dear.
egregious, I was touched, too, at the way everyone responded to you and was concerned about you. I don’t know what the problem was but I hope you are feeling and doing better.
I gather you do some type of medical work overseas. Are you part of Doctors Without Borders?
eg..I’m here. I’m having trouble sleeping too.
And I think this is a crock. This terror threat. And I’m ever so glad eg made it home safe.
Salazar backs Lieberman’s independent bid for Senate [AP]
Heartbreaking thread, yeah. I’ve been in tears wading through it.
On the NewsHour they show the pictures of the dead soldiers, and I have felt from the beginning the need to stand still and look with my full attention: to witness the sacrifice of so many beautiful, vital human beings to a huge nothing. But lately, I have trouble looking. It feels like a deficiency in me somehow, but I am so deeply sick of seeing the parade of the dead. It makes me so angry. And it has always made me feel like crying.
I think what Hope suggests is fine, and not an intrusion if done with cash and no trumpeting in this space. I have no idea what this family’s situation is, but being a new mother is terrifying. If she is ill-provided for, that post-partum depression is going to be an even larger monster.
We can’t save the world. But we can help people. Their selection is serendipitous, but you have to trust in a larger purpose or walk away. This spring we helped Ned a lot. Now we can help a bereaved wife. Or we can start a fund for bereaved families. Or both. It’s all good, as my son would say. When he started talking about joining the military in 2003, I completely lost it. Over my limp unbreathing body. Now he wants to join the Peace Corps. I believe that the impulse to help others and to serve our communities is hardwired, if we are complete human beings.
shoephone,
This is the first late night to resonate deeply since I’ve been back. And so sad. There is so much sadness – expanding geometrically, it seems.
I met you and RGB only two weeks ago, and the world has changed so much since!
crap..My mom’s flying in in tomorrow. great. I’m gonna have to call her and tell her to leave earlier.
Edward Teller 318 Humboldt Fog
susan…I know I’m hard-wired. Nice to see your ‘face’.
The Brits totally have their own version of the “Oreilly Factor”
salazars a tool
Susan,
I remember when Life Magazine ran one month’s dead U.S. servicemen from Vietnam. It was some time between Tet and Khe San. They were heavily criticized, but like Walter Cronkite’s earlier challenge, the images helped refocus the country.
How many more terrorists are we going to be willing to let Bush and his ilk make our kids create?
Hope – I have additional tin foil on when Congress is out and news cycles slow down, weird things start happening. Difficult to get a read on this one so far. On the Florida fiasco they told us enough to understand how stupid the feds were on that occasion.
What a nice shiny distraction this raise in Terror Level is. When was the last time it was raised, before the 2004 election IIRC? I worry about what it is I am not supposed to be looking at, given this group’s past.
Maybe Salazar wants to join the Connecticut for Lieberman Party. He and Joe could caucus together until Senator Lamont arrives in January.
Shoephone just walked in!
Or should I say, just phoned in.
ET – was it only two weeks ago? That doesn’t seem possible. It feels like a short lifetime ago. Hope your trip with family was wonderful.
HSAT – No, I don’t have cable. Probably a good thing, in the long run. Feeling like I want to swear off TV (except for Everybody Hates Chris, my favorite new show).
Hey everyone. Late Night has become quite the gathering place. It seems I never sleep anymore, though. And TRex’s post was so sad. Then HSAT’s story, then Rayne’s, then Fini’s.
Think I’ll make some soothing chammomile tea.
Anybody need a cup?
This is a plot to frighten. I swear. I have no feeling in my gut about it. I trust my gut alot. These fucks are looking for anything to scare people. It’s their M.O. You mark my words. I bet this turns out to be another one of those whatever-its-called ( can’t think of the word) fake-outs.
Suzanne
You are not supposed to be looking at a political neophyte antiwar candidate defeating a three-term senator, and 60 percent of the American people opposing the war in Iraq.
“9/11! 9/11!”
shoephone, yes please, with honey if it is not too much trouble.
Don’t know much about Salazar. Is this unexpected?
HopespringsATurtle @ 300
I reiterate
neuro
24 hours after the election? And in the middle of the night so it dominates the press first thing. Nope, my gut says it is something else.
hope – false alarm?
Bionic @ 13
For nearly twenty years, Mr. Littledog and I owned three rehabilitation clinics in Florida. They started as a passive investment, but when our managing partner went bankrupt in the Texas real estate bust of the late eighties we took over the management of the clinics.
The clinics were primarily for physical evaluation and rehabilitation of work injuries but one of our locations had a superb brain-injury specialist and we built a rehabilitation program around him.
Before long we had a contract with the Florida VA to do all their brain-injury retraining and the brain-injury work became our chief focus.
One day, the VA in Florida ran out of money and canceled our contract without notice. They owed us at least a hundred thousand dollars which they said they just didn’t have, and they stopped all treatments immediately.
We filed Chapter 7 and a couple of dozen employees were thrown out of work.
But the real tragedy was that veterans with brain injuries could no longer have access to training in work skills, or in getting around the city, or the myriad of other daily skills we trained them in.
The work our centers did was incredibly rewarding. Progress could be slow but the successes were real and always inspiring. We knew that without the work we were doing, our clients would have been left sitting in a dark room with the television on day after day. That’s where many of them had come from.
This was before the Iraq invasion. Can you imagine what the need would be now?
The VA cuts came from the Republican Congress at the behest of President George W. Bush.
Yeah. They support the troops. Right.
Bastards.
shoephone
Do you have anything a little, uh, stronger?
Suzanne – Yep. We’ve got honey for ya.
egregious – I thought I heard your ring tone. Welcome home.
no…not false alarm…like a ‘black ops thing’
but nonsense. I think its in the middle of the night so that it dominates the news cycle in the morning.
Neuro…What can I get you?
(virtual bartender)
thank you kindly, shoephone
neurophius – well, there’s a bottle of Crater Lake vodka in the freezer that hardly gets touched.
With an olive, or a lemon twist?
well done blue spectrum at 383
Celestial Seasonings’ sleepy time extra works too.
susan,
Humboldt Fog, that’s the ticket. We put their “purple haze” into a roasted beet, walnut and arugula salad last night
Just sitting here watching CNN & musing on how a major airplane bombing plot was foiled by “U.S./U.K. coordinated efforts” & the threat level ratcheted up the day after Bush surrogate Holy Joe goes down to defeat.
Guess this administration grows mistrust on me like weeds…
Hope, Skippy put up a post about why it matters that links here too. (gosh I just pimped for Skippy but I didn’t link does that still count)
Suz…you look good in that feathered hat and velvet..lol
neurophius – well, there’s a bottle of Crater Lake vodka in the freezer that hardly gets touched.
With an olive, or a lemon twist?
Vodka calls out for lemon, in my opinion.
And you really should try Tito’s Handmade Vodka, from Austin, TX.
It is the best!
Rory, what are you doing over here, my friend?
TRex, hon, I know what you mean about getting that awful news.
One of my co-workers had a son in Iraq. Most of his face melted off when he was too close to an IED. They saved most of it, but he doesn’t have a nose now.
He was a gorgeous young man before he went to Iraq (I almost typed Nam–I can still remember people going there and coming back shattered). Now…
His dad brought him to work one day, to save himself a trip to the VA later. We women smiled and talked to the son as we always had. But when he left, most of the men had lumps in their throats and were kicking things. The women all went in the bathroom and wept at what had happened to him. It was so horrifying. The war was real to so many then, not some video game fantasy.
Randy Rhodes cracked herself up yesterday. She suggested maybe Joe could hook up with Bernie Sanders for his independent run.
-
Salazar’s support doesn’t really surprise. But I wonder how much more difficult it’ll make Reid’s job to line up other Dems behind Lamont. Go, Joe. Take Salazer with you. We shouldn’t even have to be worrying about cr*p like this.
Actually, I am about to crash. Don’t even need the chamomile. Thanks for the offers. ‘night, all.
My tin foil alarm went off this evening when I heard on the news Israeli claims of Iranians fighting in Lebanon.
Ooh, is the topic insominia? Because have I got a case of it. I haven’t slept more than 2 hours in a day since…
Since…
Since…
No wonder I’m so damned sick right now…
Rory, what are you doing over here, my friend?
Hangin’. And you?
This is a good solid site, and the peeps will link to me when I send them a good story, which is more than a certain someone has ever done…
dab–thanks for asking. Yes I feel better and am grateful for the instasupport available around the clock during my crisis. I am bipolar II which is mostly depression, but when the mania gets going, OMG. And just for fun throw in some mood swings and mixed states with mania AND depression simultaneously, wherein lies danger. But this same brain is responsible for my passion, energy, and joy, so even if I could be ‘normal’ not sure I’d want to.
dab @ 325
Re Doctors w/o Borders/MSF they are a terrific organization which our family supports but my own work in the former Soviet Union is independent. I am not utterly anonymous here but try to keep a low profile because of other people in my circle of friends and acquaintances who might be surprised to learn I’m one of those hotheads.
Folks, I have an idea…
The MSM has been playing CT for some time now as Lieberman=centrist, Lamont=left wing loonie.
It is continuing today, on all the networks. More interviews with Lieberman than Lamont by far.
I think it’s time for some grass-roots astroturf, wherein we email or snail-mail every editorial page, all the TV Nooze shows, and complain.
How’s this:
“If Lieberman is so mainstream, why does he want to stay in Iraq while 60% of patriotic Americans want us out?
Sounds like Lamont is in the mainstream to me.”
Ooh, is the topic insominia? Because have I got a case of it. I haven’t slept more than 2 hours in a day since…
Since…
Since…
No wonder I’m so damned sick right now…
My wife has nasty insomnia as well.
I feel for you.
HSAT @ 349
I believe the term you’re searching for is “false flag.”
It will be interesting if they “roll out a new product” in September….
montag…thank you…yes. false flag. its late. thanks.
Mm, Rory, know what you mean about you-know-who. Why do you think I don’t go there anymore? Well, there were some other reasons, too, but I won’t go into that.
Man, how does Miriam stand it. I want to sleep, and I can’t! Hell, drugs aren’t working anymore. This is horrible. I’ve been awake so long this time that I can’t eat anymore.
Steve I like it. Perhaps something you should put out on Huff Po too?
rorschach – I wonder if Tito’s is sold in Seattle? Of course, it would probably just sit in the freezer too until you guys and gals showed up for a Late Night pick-me-up.
Ooh, the tea kettle just whistled…
Well folks, I am exhausted and need rest. Good night all, for th einsomniacs in the house I have found Tylenol PM to work wonders. Also, anything from the health food/supplements store with Valerian Root in it as a sleep aid.
SteveAudio, with track lighting @ 368
Just so everyone knows, Rorschach was voted Hunk of the Week over at my site. Do you have the link, still, Rory, because I’m pretty sure it’s deep in the archives?
I used to do crazy things when I had my own blog, but I burned out on that, too. Actually, I need the back-and-forth of the comments section to “feel” out my ideas.
G’nite FFToobz.
Suz 373:
I would except that I fear it might seem too, oh, I don’t know, calculated? I dunno…that’s why I floated it here first. to see what general reaction might be, and if anyone thought it might actuall carry some weight.
I guess I’m thinking about ways to get a jump on the news cycle, which is gonna be hard, since it’s already started. Just a way to spin it, I guess.
g’night fini.
Good night all – see you in the morning!
Wish some of these insomnia fixes worked for me. Valerian makes me puke–guess I’m allergic to it.
LJ/A – According to Jane, (sounds like a magazine column – “According to Jane”) she hasn’t been sleeping or eating either.
Maybe you two could form a band. The Sleepy Little Sisters.
(Looks like punaise hopped off to bed…)
SteveAudio, with track lighting – hehehe That’s a good idea. Joe has more media attention now that when he was a candidate for VP.
Lamont has a message.
Joe has none.
Peterr, thx for your support when I was down. It really helped.
Valerian smells something awful.
I worked too many swing shifts to not be a night owl. My favorite shift was 4pm to 3am. Unfortunately, my body clock appears to have been permanently readjusted to those hours.
Lieberman smells something awful.
FWIW, re: reporting the terrorist plot:
British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB — formerly two companies, Sky Television and BSB) is a company that operates Sky Digital, the most popular subscription television service in the UK and Ireland. It also produces TV content, and owns several TV channels. More than a third of the equity is owned by News Corporation, an American company chaired by Rupert Murdoch,
Jane, too, huh?
See, that’s one of the weird things about this. I just realized she had mentioned that, but I can’t remember when or… Everything’s so jumbled now.
Maybe it’s something in the air? Weird planetary alignments?
What a bunch of wimps. Come on. Stay up all night!
Actually, it is only six minutes past midnight here and I took a nap today. Maybe I can go back in the house and watch CNN until I get more afraid again.
Actually, I think I’ll take my dog out on the lake in the canoe and go over to where the sockeye are spawning and listen to them in that thing which has just returned here this past week after three months of absence. The dark.
Then, with the dog, on the lake, I think i’ll fire one up for hope and for what good the new day may bring.
Night.
nite ET. that sounds wonderful.
aw, crap, I got moderated…Sky News, who is reporting the terrorist stuff in the UK, is 1/3 owned by Rupert Murdoch.
I’m just saying…
Spiderpaws would be able to tell us if it was planetary.
hit F5, you got sprung
LJ/A
I swear this works. Warm milk. heat gently. Add a bit of sugar or honey, just a pinch. Cinnamon, nutmeg and a 3 drops of vanilla extract. Take a vitamin B complex with the milk. Sleep will ensue. The warm milk in conjunction with the b complex, release lots ao LTriptiphane. It works I swear.
Steve, and Murdoch just had that big get together in Monterey, with Tony Blair and Big Dog and a whole bunch of other “noteables”. I’m just saying.
Steve, when my Congresswoman got some track lighting in her home, I just laughed and told her she was really going after the gay vote for sure!
egregious @ 385
Now, that’s the basis of a good campaign ad.
With Lynerd Skynerd’s “That Smell” in the background….
Steve – I really like the idea of maintaining pressure on Reid and the leadership…yank Joe from his committee positions!
eg @ 387 -
ROFL
Ed T – your description sounded very Hemingway-esque. Did you write it standing up like he used to?
I think in these letters to dem leaders we need to convince them that now is the time. They are spineless.
*ilson’s got insomnia, too.
*ilson46201 396:
Aw, come on!
Almost every studio I do work for has track lighting, although it’s not from Target, like mine probably is.
Insteat, it’s very high tech shit with exposed wires, like in the coolest restaurants here in L.A.
Oh wait, that still makes it gay.
Never mind.
ok…sleep. Night all thanks for the commraderie.
Thanks, ESAR & HSAT.
night, Hope
He is not a dem he’s dependent.)
Hope, sleep well.
sleep well Hope.
Eureka @ 405
Yeah, dependent upon endorsements from Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter… and George Bush….
HSAT – nice dreams.
Suz 407, ERAR 408:
You guys sound like background vocals I have recorded.
We also need to keep the pressure on about Joe’s negating of the election results (using a technicality) and the message THAT sends around the world about American democracy.
Just so everyone knows, Rorschach was voted Hunk of the Week over at my site. Do you have the link, still, Rory, because I’m pretty sure it’s deep in the archives?
I know I linked to it, but it’s not showing up on a search, alas…
But I know it must be soon after March 12, 2005… I’ll look.
—
Never mind. Here it is.
Steve – That was sort of Phil Spector-ish.
I am off to count rabid lamb on track lighting red alert.
May peace be with all pupsters.
Nite, ES, sleep well.
I gotta go, too, night friends!
Nite, Steve with Track Lighting… sleep well
(((sleep for Hope)))
Pryor to support Lieberman’s independent run (Arkansas News)
still here. trying to catch up on previous threads.
egregious – wish I could stay up and keep ya company but… I’m fading. And you’ve got a lot of threads to catch up on! It’s been busy around here for days.
‘Night.
Sad tale. Evocatively told. A former colleague’s husband was recently killed by an IED in Baghdad. And a classmate of mine decided to re-up – he’s currently on his second tour in Iraq and will almost certainly have a third or more. And we sometimes lose sight of the casulty rate because medical science has advanced so much people that would have been dead 10-20 years ago now survive. So many lives shattered or affected. Every time I hear more BS from politicians, it makes me angry, because this stuff matters a great deal.
TRex, got here late. An amazing post, terrifying, heart-breaking and maddening all at once.
We have to get these fuckers out of office, out of power, out of the discourse, and where they belong: to the Hague, to jail, into exile ….
Ok, /anger. Back to the work at hand ….
HopeSpringsATurtle @
396
I’m lactose intolerant, especially with milk. I can endure some cheese and cream, I’m entirely fine with butter, but milk–no can do.
Sigh…
But I’m desperate. I’ll try it, with cream.
Anybody up listening to reports of the terror plot to blow planes up in mid-air? 21 people arrested in UK.
In a Christian Science Monitor article entitled US Neocons Hoped Israel Would Attack Syria Tom Regan says:
“Neoconservatives, or ‘neocons,’ believe that the United States should not be ashamed to use its unrivaled military power to promote its values around the world.”
Meanwhile, a News 24 piece entitled July: Iraq’s Deadliest Month reports that “at least 1800 people were killed across Iraq in terror attacks and other violence during July”.
Hmmmmm. I think I’m beginning to get it. Dead Arabs – lots of them – that’s what the neocons are all about really, isn’t it.
Some value. Some promotion.
But hey, different strokes for different folks.
There’s more. As Bush himself said, “Iraq is a grave and gathering danger”.
No question about that. It’s dangerous to itself and its people. And to “other people” who are there. And in a genie-out-of-the-bottle sense it surely is “a grave and gathering danger” to the region, to the United Kingdom (e.g., 7/7, let alone today’s terror alert), to the United States and maybe to the whole world.
So what’s Bush waiting for? Why the hell isn’t he doing something about it? What kind of a pussy is he? Surely a real man would attack and invade and occupy Iraq.
Still angling for those roses and sweets, it matters not from whom.
Curious in Central Texas @ 427- oh, yeah, been watching it all night.
Who can sleep w/this crap going on….
M. Roget @ 358.
Off to go to work this a.m.
A couple of blasts from HoHo’s past, courtesy of Juan Cole:
Americans United calls on Lieberman to step down as chairman of Center for Jewish and Christian values
Lynne Cheney-Joe Lieberman Group Puts Out a Blacklist
Finally the sun is coming up, 630 east coast. Got used to 530 sunise the last couple of weeks, after a 1030pm sunset. This isn’t even White Nights just normal August.
Still hoping to see Aurora Borealis sometime, maybe go up to Murmansk.
Am thinking about fdl folk getting up and reacting to what TRex wrote. Need to be ready.
GREAT POST TRex.
Also, nice meeting you in CT and THANKS for wearing your LUCKY TIE Tuesday night!
My personal trainer’s husband is getting shipped out to Iraq this week. Three little kids. Sigh.
Morning–usually I come here first to greet y’all, but with a nephew in the Army in Iraq, and the first few lines of this story, I had to read it through. Yep, and it’s waking up uneasily in the morning, and wondering if it was the mango sorbet too late at night or some awful premonition of loss and sorrow. And a hundred other small things each day that remind you that someone you love is in harm’s way. And burns, don’t go there. WORST. EVER. (Burnt once over 19% of my body, mostly legs, many years ago and I’m fine now.) Horribly painful recovery and long. God bless that poor soldier and his family.
Morning all — that post knocked my pleasant dreams to the floor. But it helped me refocus again.
Tossed and turned all night. I also had Mango sorbet before I went to bed, hmm..
As a caregiver to a catastrophically disabled Viet Nam Veteran..I hear you
my knowledge fisthand
made me against the war from the very beginning
Ed*ard Teller @
391
hey ed*ward, i’m here. but it’s 1:10PM in dresden so i guess it doesn’t count.
“A vote for Joe Lieberman? It’s a vote to kill another American soldier.”
I passionately agree with you. Bring the troops home.
http://www.slcblues.blogspot.com
I love this place. Simply love it. What a blessing in my life.
OS, but as we know, blessings go in more than one direction. Thank you.
i wonder if there is a historian who’s done a study on countries that start wars and how things turned out for them.
probably America’s two biggest fuck-ups: Viet Nam and Iraq.
we came out pretty well with WWI and WWII but we didn’t start either one of those.
Germany (WWI, WWII))
France (1870)
Russian in Afghanistan
Japan (WWII)
France (1812)
none of these countries did very well. somebody ought to research this.
do neocons read history?
gotta go up to berlin in thirty minutes.
GO LAMONT!
Well Imm, to use an old saw, birds of a feather…….
How’s the writing going? Making progress?
The bIraqi war and the coming ones in the ME are not failures as far as the corporatists are concerned.
This is a war to destroy a culture, to take their oil and generate business for the military sector.
Life really means nothing to capital… profits do. These people cynically exploit religious rivalries to further chaos. Our soldiers matter not except to create the chaos and the cover for the eventual theft of their oil.
They don’t care about life? Stem cells? But bombing civilians in the ME shows that THAT life matters not… not even the lives of soldiers, or people from NOLA… all expendable in the march of capital.
progress yes, completion, not yet. Today is a whole ‘nother day. I got a little distracted tuesday night… :~)
But, believe me, I can now intelligently discuss all the complexities of the prosecutor’s duty to seek justice and how that constrains them from adequately assisting victims of sexual assault. My head is swimming with it.
Morning, all.
Best TRex post, evah. My compliments.
ET–we went out on the water in our canoe on Tuesday night. We are on a bay in Maine and the water was placid and filled with phosphoresence. Birds flew low over the sea and the seals left a stream of sparkling water in their wake. The beautiful full moon outlined the mountains of Mt Desert Island, and created startlingly beautiful sculptures of trees and driftwood. Peace peace peace…
Imm, what a thing to have your head filled with…..have a cuppa my post above…….
Aaaahhh. And to think I was just there makes it better, OS.
T Rex, what a heartbreaking post, thank you for putting this into words
As Kanye West would say, “George Bush doesn’t give a damn about the soldiers.”
Mornin all. What a sad story. Worst President Ever!
our terror level is now critical.
Worst President Ever!
take the poll…
Meh…watch me try my hardest to give a shit about anyone dumb or reactionary enough to join the military when they know they could end up shooting civilians in Iraq.
tommy yum @ 447
Yeah, tommy yum, I agree. I usually expect fabulous youtubing vids and great snarky yucks, but this ratchets FDL Late Night up several levels ….
)))))) EXTREME APPLAUSE ((((((
thank you TRex … my sentiments exactly but said ” better”.
Oh God. Oh, God, Oh God.
Good morning, dear ones. I’ve read this thread with a dropping jaw — the subject matter, the writing, the reaching out and clasping of strangers in pain, the creative problem-solving, the karma.
Firedoglake is simply the incanniest experience and most stunning blessing of my life.
God bless us all. All. ALL.
Mornin Lotus. Howz it down in your corner or the country?
Presser on CNN now – let’s see how chertoff will try to take credit for the foiling British terror plot.
err, pastor maker, as always I am of two minds (Gemini). Given the extreme low level of education available to the mainstream, plus the lying 24/7 on most MSM, plus the dismal job opportunities, plus the sentimental WWII war ethos (also visible on all war MOVIES 24/7), plus all the sorts of other pluses, I still think that many young recruits have stars in their eyes and having seen many airports full of raw incredibly young soldiers dying from fear inside before they even get to the war they think they’re supposed to participate in for democracy and to prove their manhood (don’t know about the young women), I do feel sorry for them. No-one close enough to them in their lives to guide their thinking LONG before they ever get to the recruitment office. I think they’re pitiable. All that said, I feel worse for the folks at home waiting for them to return…….
What happened to ZenNurse?
chertoff – ALL liquids banned in carry-on in U.S. Baby formula/milk must be hand checked.
What a heart wrenching story…
Thanks so much.
Jack
Good morning FDL, TRex, wonderful post. I’ve got good coffee, and homemade granola bars here (found a use for the peach puree)
DefJef @ 463
Zennurse is fine, her computer got fired, so she has very limited access to participation. She is, for the moment, a reader. Hi, Zen!!
Hi, twolfie. I dunno what’s up down here yet, I’ve been so rivetted to TRex, Rayne, Hope, Fini, and everybody else’s story-telling and activism here.
But if Blue Florida (or “-ian” [?]) is still around, or if Florida Mom or any other FLA commenter/reader wants in on the FDL of FLA get-together that we wanna convene here soon, please sing out to lotuslander@cfl.rr.com!
OS, I bleeve I’d like me a cuppa your 448 too, if you don’t mind. Exquisite draught, that.
Hello, imm, medaka, tommy — howz by my wonder-boyz this morning?
Haha — that’s “computer got fried” Sometimes, spellcheck does not help.
Ooo, add you to my wonder-boyz shoutout, beard5!
I’m okay, dear lotus!
Chercough & Gonzie – am I the only one who’s verrrry glad the Brits are the “lead investigators” in whatever this new mess turns out to be?
Hi Lotus, and you’re welcome to the cuppa, of course. There’s enough for us all, kids. Happy to see the rest of the sunrise team here now.
NPR running on terrorism fuel right now, wrt the foiled air strike. America on “red” alert for planes. Fer Chrissakes, timing. I’m with Hope from last nigh saying, in effect, “spin”. No liquids can be carried on board……hope they stock up on plenty water–them stews goin’ to be running the aisles. today.
Morning, everyone.
Got up this morning to the British terror plot news, and mused about how the hell we’re supposed to buy the propaganda that we’re all so much safer now since George Bush has been in charge of anti-terror policy. Sad to say, some Republican, whose mouth operates independently from his brain, will likely remind us that it’s not happening here, thus relegating the Brits to the “over there” that they think it’s so much better for the terrorists to be.
TRex, your post reminded me of my daughter’s friends who are currently starting year two at the Naval Academy, and who, at the rate Bush is going, will likely see some kind of combat duty. Another friend of my daughter has an older brother who has been in Iraq, and who thought he was coming home, only to be told that his deployment has been extended…
When you actually know people whose lives are on the line in this way, it is impossible not to make the connections between the decisions our elected representatives are making, and these men and women who depend on them to make the right decisions.
I seem to be starting out the day in something of a funk, one that is more tinged with sadness than anger, although that’s there, too.
Am now going to eat and read the paper – I’m sure I’ll be in a much better mood, after I do that…(she said, sarcastically).
OMFG.
Had BBC streaming all nite. Thought of HSAT and her trip to Germany.
Read TRex. Thought of Dr. HSAT.
Thread ties it all up.
Sadly. Maddeningly. Sobbingly.
Tinfoil ‘false flag’ – I concur. Till PROVEN OTHERWISE.
Great writing, TRex. Than you.
earlier, a CNN reporter quoted an official as saying something on the order of – “This was the real deal, not like before, this was operational, not crazy ideas.”
-are they admitting that the previous “foiled plots” that they’ve used for propaganda were bunk?
OS, how in hell are they thinking they can ban carryons without bringing down the whole air-travel system in the process? As I say, I haven’t been “outside” much yet — but BLIMEY, this is nuts!
Okay, here’s the Brit press, lessee what they got . . .
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/global [don’t miss the Lieberman story, for the cartoon — text, not so much]
http://www.guardian.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Blank K–Red Sox ALWAYS
Our Kludger lost his hiccups — YAY!
OT from a lurker–Jane coming up next on Rachel Maddow
Oh for Pete’s sake. I’ve tried to post this damned thing about an editorial in the Washington Post three times now, FDL don’t like my posts this morning, my browser locks up and dies. (let’s see if this one goes through. )
prostratedragon @ 431
Having read all the articles that have been dug up about Lieberman’s run against Weicker in 1988 – I’m fascinated by Joe’s journey over the past 18 years to the dark side. When did it really start and why? The affiliations you mention occured in 2000 and 2001 – both are despicable. Did the real break with the Democratic party occur after the 2000 election?
which one, beard5? I’ll post it for you, if you like.
mornin’ lotus, mornin’ All …
what’s news — lemme see: Sam Seder might be booted from Air America ….. check all the other blue blogs (C L etc…) for places to send your can of email whupass ….
MEANWHILE . . .
LIEBERMAN LOSES
so it’s
CODE RED ! !
Run away! Run away!
Re: Terror plot
Wake up Democrats. Do you feel safer, yet?
The dems need to jump all over this. Remember Rove attacks where his opponent thinks he is strongest. The Bushies rejoice in every terrorist plot because they think they are strong on security. They are not.
Al Queda is still out there … plotting. Osama is running around loose. Does anyone here feel the Bush administration or the department of Homeland Insecurity is up to the challenge?
Jump all over this. Somehow Rove managed to smear Kerry, who served bravely in Vietnam, and protected Bushie who skated on his NG service. We can certainly turn Bush’s record of incomptence at fighting terrorism against him. We have the added advantage in that it’s true ….
Thanks, sophie g, you lurker-no-more, you.
Lotus, I’ll try again, just with the link and without the blockquotes, maybe that’s what’s making the system sieze up.
lo