As one of your constituents, I am writing to express my opposition to the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as U.S. Attorney General.

Mr. Gonzales has proven himself incapable of strategic and systemic thought critical to the office of Attorney General.  In failing to vigorously support the application of Geneva Conventions and failing to recommend complete abstention from all forms of torture and abuse against detainees, he has exposed our active duty personnel and American civilians to the torture and abuse without recourse.  We can no longer demand of other nations and states or non-governmental entities that which we have not supplied under treaty or simple human decency.

Further, Mr. Gonzales may have coached the President of the United States to breach his contracted duties by encouraging the President to break with treaties, contracts and agreements including Geneva Conventions.  To be blunt, this is insupportable behavior not worthy of White House staff, let alone a candidate for the office of U.S. Attorney General.

For these reasons I ask that you strongly consider opposing the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales.

Sincerely,

[my signature here]

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(Submit your own letter; go to Congress.org, lookup your Senators by zip code and email them now.)

8:28:35 PM    comment []

I am writing to you again in regards to the confirmation hearing of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State.

As I mentioned in my email to you last week, I have serious reservations about Ms. Rice's performance in her previous role and her qualifications for the position of Secretary of State.

Many may take issue with her ineptitude or incompetence in discerning from intelligence presented the veracity of proof meriting a unilateral and preemptive war against Iraq; it is no small series of errors on Ms. Rice's part that has and will cost this nation billions of dollars, prestige as a global leader, and the deaths of more than a thousand troops and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. 

But I personally feel Ms. Rice's greatest challenge is her inability to listen, process, analyze and speak truth to power.  She failed to heed, process or analyze any warnings she received from the outgoing Clinton Administration regarding the magnitude of threat from terrorism; she continued to ignore continued warnings for nearly nine months in 2001 from credentialed experts within the Bush Administration.  If she heard and understood the gravity of the threats, she gave no sign, either through elevation of terrorism to the top of her plate or through communications to this effect to the President and the rest of the Administration.

In short, she may have contributed directly to the deaths of nearly 3,000 persons here on American soil -- a gross failing as the National Security Advisor.

At this point I have no faith that Ms. Rice has paid heed to any information that may have been accurate or worthy of further scrutiny.  If she could not do this as National Security Advisor, I have no faith at all that she could do so as Secretary of State.  In fact, she could continue to make even larger errors in that role.

It's not a risk I wish to take.  I ask that you consider voting against Ms. Rice's confirmation.

Sincerely,

[my signature here]

8:02:15 PM    comment []

Yesterday was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year.  Nope, not here.

It's today, at least in this household.

My husband will be a lector and a pallbearer at the funeral of a family member.  Really nice guy, late 60's, discovered he had lung cancer only this month.

And now gone.

I won't go into the details.  Suffice it to say that the family is grateful his suffering was not prolonged, but there was suffering nonetheless.  There will be continued suffering within the family for some time to come.

My husband is taking this hard, too.  I think it's partly because of the state into which we've emerged, not just because of the loss of a family member.  We've reached a point where all the old-timers and sickly ones have all died.  Mortality reaches more closely to the next generation; this person, an older-cousin-in-law, was younger than my in-laws.  He always seemed like an active, healthy guy, no complaints, a big, burly happy-go-lucky person.

At the same time, it's not just that death reminds us that we are finite.  This death was a reminder about the stakes, the seriousness of decisions we make every day about even the littlest things.

Like smoking.  Picking up that next little white cigarette and putting it to your lips.  Lighting that match.

Stop.

I beg you to stop today, if you smoke.  It won't be easy, I know it, but this little thing, this little bundle of rather expensive shredded leaves in a paper wrapper is something you can conquer.  Or it will conquer you as it did the man who will be laid to rest today.

He should have had at least another 10 or 20 good years, long enough to see his grandson become an adult.  Maybe even hold that first great-grandbaby.

Or go deer hunting at least one more season with my husband.

10:50:33 AM    comment []