Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Of mice and men Maybe getting back in the blogger's seat just takes something about which you feel strongly enough. This is it: Sometimes, war's a game of cat and mouse I'm proud to call the author my friend. Jerry's a former co-worker, a reporter with a wicked out-of-nowhere sense of humor and a wonderful flair for heartfelt feature stories. Nothing he's written, though, has been as important as this. Moments ago I e-mailed him and told him he did a great service by humanizing the modern soldier -- taking him (or her) out from under the public relations veil cast over them by the Pentagon. In WWII there was "Willie and Joe at the Front" and other such words and images that reminded those at home that those dodging the bullets and shells were their friends and neighbors. We tend to forget that in 21st century warfare because the combatants are depersonalized -- I suppose because Uncle Sam doesn't want us to become too emotionally involved in the war lest our support for it wanes. I'm still about 86 bazillion light years from supporting the war in Iraq. But I've always supported those engaged in it and I simply can't begin to understand those who maintain that one cannot support the troops without supporting the war. (I love my classic Chevy, but GM can go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned.) But since reading this -- the tale of a soldier and his empathy for an adversary -- I not only support the troops, I feel pretty good about what some of them are made of. Especially my friend Jerry Jimenez. Keep your head down, dude. See ya soon, I hope. 8:42:29 PM    Your Turn []

Friday, August 06, 2004

Dirty deeds done to sheep John Kerry's commanding officer in Vietnam regrets calling Kerry a liar 35 years later. But it's probably too little, too late. Lt. Com. George Elliot told the Boston Globe (Veteran Retracts Criticism of Kerry) he made a "terrible mistake" when he signed an affidavit saying Kerry did not deserve the Silver Star -- the very medal for which Elliot recommended Kerry in 1969. The affidavit serves to support Elliot's statements in the book "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry." In the book, which will be published next week, Elliot is quoted as saying Kerry '"lied about what occurred in Vietnam . . . for example, in connection with his Silver Star, I was never informed that he had simply shot a wounded, fleeing Viet Cong in the back." (The enemy soldier was carrying a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher and, according to an account by one of Kerry's Swift boat mates, he was poised to fire.) John O'Neill, a naval officer in Vietnam and a member of the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, is the book's co-author. In a TV ad that began this week, Elliot, who appears in the ad with other group members, says, "John Kerry has not been honest about what happened in Vietnam."  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a Vietnam veteran who was a POW for five years, has denounced the group's attacks on Kerry, calling them "dishonest and dishonorable," and has called on President Bush to disassociate himself from the book and the ad. The Bush campaign has denied association with O'Neill or the producers of the TV ad, and White House spokesman Scott McClelland responded, ''We have not and we will not question Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam." Elliot's regrets and W's denial are all well and good. But the stark fact is, the ads are out and the book will be -- "dishonest and dishonorable" and all. This is one of the aspects of politics that seriously pisses me off. A politician can say pretty much anything he/she wants, with little or no regard for truth. When called on it, they need only say they were misquoted or quoted out of context, or cite the non-committal "I misspoke," and that's generally the end of it -- except that the message is out, and people will continue to believe it. And politicians know this as well as they know their stump speeches. It's part of the game.  The classic example is, of course, the Wregime's contention that Saddam Hussein had WMD, posed an imminent threat to the U.S., harbored and trained al Qaeda terrorists, etc. All of this has been discounted by the 9/11 Commission, yet polls show that about one-third of Americans still believe it. (In all honesty, I believe W believed the flawed intel -- it was what he wanted to believe, after all -- and went public with it in quasi-good faith as well as a gleeful "Toldya so." But the point remains, now that it's known that the intel was flawed, we don't see him making an effort to set the record straight. To do so would jeopardize his election, and he knows it.) A degree of truth-stretching is permitted, and expected, in ads for products and services. An advertiser can say "Simply the best" or "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee," and we take it for what it's worth. But the Ford Motor Co. is not allowed to say "Chevy trucks explode at 35 mph." But if you have a political agenda (or a talk show on AM radio or Fox News), you can say "John Kerry got his Purple Hearts for scratches" or "Bill Clinton is a rapist," and it goes down as your opinion. It's presented as a statement of fact, but it's your opinion and you're entitled to it. Kerry or Clinton could sue you for slander, but they'd be fools to give you the extra attention -- and you know it. I'm reminded of a line near the end of "Primary Colors" in which the neurotic lesbian tactician Libby Holden recounted candidate Jack Stanton's idealism during the 1972 presidential campaign: I couldn't believe that Tom Eagleton would really be a nutcase. They had to have dragged him off and drugged him and made him crazy. It couldn't have been that McGovern was just -- a complete fucking amateur. No, they did dirty tricks. And I said to Jack, "We gotta get that capability." And you said, "No. Our job is to end all that. Our job is to make it clean. Because if it's clean, we win -- because our ideas are better." Would that it were true. 4:47:08 PM    Your Turn []

Thursday, August 05, 2004

The truth comes out Bush insists his administration seeking 'new ways to harm our country' "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." 11:30:42 AM    Your Turn []

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Lessons in democracy, part II Welcome to America. You can't come in here. And hand over your money. Memphis, TN -  Memphis police report that two members of a visiting Iraqi Delegation are robbed as they stroll down a city street. WREG News Channel 3. Meanwhile, Memphis civic leaders are falling all over themselves to make amends with the seven Iraqis (and no doubt their countrymen), and to keep their fair city from becoming known as the paranoid right-wing capital of America. Late Wednesday, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton issued a statement saying:  "On behalf ot the citizens of Memphis I deeply regret the unfortunate events the Iraqi delegation experienced while visiting Memphis earlier this week.  In no way should this experience reflect the feelings of our citizenry or its elected officials.  I believe these incidents occurred due to lakc [sic] of communication and heightened anxiety as a result of world events.  I apologize ot [sic] the Iraqi delegation and their hosts.  I want them to know they are always welcome to the City of Memphis and my door at City Hall is always open to them." WREG News Channel 3. My patriotic friend who's hot on the trail of this story told me she was talking today with a Republican friend who was fine with the Iraqis being banned from city hall. "I would've done the same thing," her friend said. "Democracy isn't the point." Then what the hell is? Two for Tenn. Oh, those silly Tennesseans. They're just a laugh a minute. ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) - An official who staged a security drill that disrupted a county commission meeting with guns and mock hostage-takers has been suspended. TBO.com -- AP News Gotta wonder what Al Gore's thinking about his home state these days. 4:45:51 PM    Your Turn []

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

I bet they let 'em into Graceland One of my dearest internet friends has proven herself a true patriot. She did this not by sticking flags all over her home and car, nor by baking brownies for U.S. troops in Iraq. She saw something that was wrong and protested it, not by an act of civil disobedience but by one of defending her country against its own madness. She read this: Iraqis on Tour Banned From Memphis City Hall by City Council Chair, Who Cited Security Concerns and e-mailed it to the entire Memphis City Council, with this note: "I am ashamed of what Memphis, TN taught this group about our Government." I share her shame; we all should -- particularly on the day that the Statue of Liberty was opened to visitors for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001. If I were an editorial cartoonist, I'd draw Lady Liberty hanging her head and the caption, "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses -- except for the following:" Paranoia and xenophobia are not becoming of you, America. On edit: According to a later story here, the Iraqi delegation received a less-than-warm welcome in Memphis from the get-go: nobody showed up to meet them at the airport. And, according to the last two paragraphs, I write clairvoyant headlines. 6:21:03 PM    Your Turn []

Monday, August 02, 2004

Gray fun in the summertime I'd almost forgotten what summers were like in the city where I spent my first 42 years until my sister reminded me yesterday. She and my brother-in-law had procured some freebies to the ball game -- they've got a semi-pro team there -- and in relating how the game went, she mentioned the weather. "You guys got fog?" I said, rather dumbly. "Look over the hills," she said. I did. It looked as if a napping giant had tossed back his ash-gray-and-cobalt blanket and left it laying rumpled atop the 3,000-foot range that serves as a buffer between here and Monterey Bay. We've been getting morning overcast for the last week or so, since the temperature abruptly dropped from 92 or so to 75, but Over There they're under the "dense marine layer" all day during summer -- actually, from about May to September or so. Memory's a funny thing. Most of my summer recollections involve cruising South Main Street on nights warm enough to leave your jacket on the back seat. The Summer of '74 was a re-enactment of "American Graffiti," only most of the cars were newer. (It was a toss-up whether the fastest car in town was Dave's '56 Chevy or Artie's primer-gray Camaro. As far as I know, they never raced each other.) There were a lot of overcast evenings then, though. One of 'em was the night a cop I knew came up behind me and gave me a half-second blast with his siren. I jerked my '66 Chevy to the curb, jumped out and said, "Wha'd I do???" "I'm lonely," Ossifer Vic said. "Let's go have coffee." And we did. I remember, too, being on the playground in grammar school -- the basketball court, usually -- and having a couple of panic attacks (long before the term was coined) on overcast days and concluding with the logic of an 11-year-old that the weather was somehow the cause. Prior to that, I'd surmised that it was sunny days. Both proved incorrect, though cloud cover has always been a source of mild depression, as have those winter days when the sun seems to never quite come up all the way and it's gone by 5:30 p.m. I went to a lot of those ball games too. Some years ago we had a minor-league team and I went to virtually every home game for eight seasons, on the house since I wormed my way into being the team photographer. I loved the overcast then, since it provided flat contrast and I didn't have to spend way too much time in the darkroom trying to get those godawful cap-bill shadows off players' faces. But about the fifth inning, when it got too dark to shoot (old minor-league ball parks are notorious for bad lighting), I'd take my place with the other "bleacher creatures" behind the home team's dugout. But for a couple of weeks in July, we braved the prevailing wind that blew off the bay and onto our backs. (Beer helped. It also helped in July when the weather was great.) Finally, we made a deal with the GM: He paid for the materials and we worked a couple nights covering the back of the bleachers with plywood to stave off the wind. It helped, a little. It also gave us something loud to pound on during "rally time." I just looked again, and that blanket's still laying atop the hills. Makes me think you can go home again, but right now I'd rather not. 7:28:13 PM    Your Turn []

Friday, July 30, 2004

Pardon me while I bash two bricks together This is a test. Below should be a graphic of Mr. Gumby from Monty Python's Flying Circus, who's one of my heroes. If you see it, it means I've learned to do another of those bloody HTML things. If not, I'll just delete this post. So this is all quite redundant in a sort of existential way. I... hope... you're... en... joy... ing... THIS! 5:45:00 PM    Your Turn []

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