Beyond Tuesday...

Make it happen!

Let me start this post by saying, right off the bat, that progressives and responsible persons who care about the future of this country (and, indeed, of humanity) must not for an instant relent in our efforts to win this election. That goes for the presidential race, for all the "down ticket" races, and for the various initiatives and petitions on the ballot. Ignorance, bigotry, and gut-level fundamentalism will never rest. They will continue to pollute and poison until they have suffocated everything, including their own adherents in revolting death. So, while we've got them on the run, keep making phone calls, canvassing, persuading. And above all, make sure to vote!

Note to Oregon voters: Today, Friday, October 31st, is the last day you can drop your ballot in a mailbox and be assured that it will reach the elections office by Election Day. If you can't get it in a mailbox today, after you've completed it, take it to an official drop-off site. Public libraries are one such. For Portland Metro area residents, there is a list of sites here.

With that (rather lengthy) caveat behind me, I'll proceed to the gist of this post.

If, as polls indicate, the Democrats from Barack Obama on down, rout the Republicans and come into power with an unequivocal mandate, there will be a tendency among "lefties" like me to relax, to breathe a sigh of relief. And, I think it is only to be expected. The emotional and psychological strain of the last 8 years has been enormous. If we win on Tuesday, by all means, let's take a day or two to savor the victory.

But, only a day or two...

I know that the Democrats, though they are far superior to the corrupt and hypocritical Republicans, are still a long way from perfect. Obama has already uttered placations to right-wingers; and a Democratic coalition in Congress will be hampered by the backward-thinking "Blue Dogs." So, it won't be long before progressives and liberals will have to be out there advocating, promoting, lobbying if we are to see the changes that we want, that this country needs.

This was brought home for me the other night. Maty and I had gone to dinner at a local eatery after a trip to the Food 4 Less. As we sat at our table, I noticed a large family nearby speaking a language I didn't recognize. The man and woman looked to be in their forties and there were 5 or 6 kids ranging from a beautiful girl in her late teens to two toddlers that I suspect were twins. By the look of them, I thought they might be Armenian or Turkish. So, when I happened to catch the eye of the woman I asked her which language they were speaking.

"Arabic," she replied, with a smile.

"Where are you from?" I asked.

"Jerusalem," the man said.

Maty, who still has trouble with English pronunciations, looked at me quizzically. "Je-ru-sa-lem?" she asked.

"Jerusalem," I said. "You know....Israel."

The man (I later learned his name was "Rick") frowned slightly, wagging his finger at me. "Not Israel," he said. "Palestine."

Chagrined, I apologized.

A few minutes later, when another opportunity arose, I spoke to Rick again. I told him that not all Americans agreed with US policy toward the Israel-Palestine issue, and that I, personally, was appalled by the bias and injustice of it.

Rick said that he spoke with many Americans, and he knew that there were a lot of them that disagreed with the policy. "But when I look at your two presidential candidates, I don't see that anything will change."

And I had to agree with him. There is not a whit of difference between the policies of Obama and McCain with regard to the Israel-Palestine issue. Both candidates have paid obeisance to AIPAC. Both have been full-throated in their "complete support" of Israel.

For those of us that want a more equitable policy toward Palestine, there is a lot of work to do.

And that applies, as well, to many other policies: international trade, immigration, environmental policies, corporate power.

The advantage to having Obama as president is that, at least, liberals and progressives will have a man in the White House that will give us audience, that will have a degree of sympathy toward our views. With McCain, as with Junior before him, we wouldn't even make it within earshot where we could, at least, shout curses.

So, let's get this election won. Let's crush the Republicans. Let's shame them, revile them, humiliate them. And then, let's take a day or two to enjoy our victory.

But after that, let's get to work.

McCain aide spills the beans: Protect Junior!

"Don't worry, sir. I got your back."

John McCain has spent a lot of time and effort trying to distance himself from President Junior, and even the most stalwart Republican troglodyte can hardly blame him. Junior has the all the appeal of a weeping canker sore and the gravitas of a clown-suited monkey at a black-tie dinner.

But, behind the scenes, apparently, a deal has been cut. If McCain is elected, he will protect Junior.

In an interview with the German publication Der Spiegel, McCain aide Robert Kagan revealed the planned agenda for a McCain administration: Extend the Bush cover-up of the lies used to initiate the invasion of Iraq. As reported by ThinkProgress:

SPIEGEL: Isn’t it true that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld took advantage of the outrage over the 9/11 terrorist attacks to strike Iraq? Is it even possible anymore to deny that the war was based on manipulation, exaggeration and flat-out lies? […]
KAGAN: In retrospect, we have to admit that Washington could have waited a while longer. That’s a different question. But I think it’s about time we moved beyond this silly conversation and these absurd conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories? There are 935 documented lies, uttered by Big Dick, Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Junior and others related to the Iraq war, both pre- and post-invasion. The administration, with its lapdog Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, has stone-walled all inquiries into the matter.

Kagan reveals the McCain agenda

Well, Kagan revealed that a McCain administration would continue the stone-walling. McCain may whine that he's not George W. Bush, but he knows which side his bread is buttered on, as the saying goes. McCain is a Republican to the bone. If and when the public ever gets a real look at the manipulation and lies that the Bush administration used to sell their filthy war, it could very well mean the death of the Republican party. McCain won't have that. As Kagan indicates, McCain will even protect a man whom he despises, Junior Bush, who slandered McCain's wife and child in the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary, rather than let his party be destroyed.

I've got news for Mr. Kagan, and for John McCain: I'm not willing to just "move on." Hundreds of thousands of people have died or been maimed or driven to despair by this war. I voted for Barack Obama for many reasons, but chief among them was the possibility that an Obama administration might someday bring these filthy liars to justice.

The Constitution of the United States either means something, or it doesn't. Junior Bush, with his flagrant disrespect for that cherished document has shown how he feels about it. Apparently, the McCain campaign agrees with him.

"Country First," John? Don't make me wretch!

Trouble in Paradise? Sarah and Johnny in a tiff!

Well.... it looks like Mad Johnny's campaign meltdown is accelerating as we head in to the final seven days(!) of the campaign. As if it wasn't bad enough that the longest serving Republican Senator, Ted Stevens from Sarah Palin's home state of Alaska, was convicted on 7 felony corruption charges, Sarah Palin seems to have gone rogue.

Reports have been surfacing in the media news outlets about Palin straying "off-message" in her public statements, and saying things that are out-and-out detrimental to the message that the McCain campaign is trying to cobble together.

After it came to light that Palin's Republican National Committee handlers spent $150K on her campaign wardrobe, the media spent much air time speculating on the impact that this unfortunate disclosure would have on the public at large. This was especially embarrassing for McCain, because the revelation occurred at the very time that McCain was trying to manufacture some kind of blue-collar empathy via his "Joe the Plumber" meme.

The McCain campaign did its best to put the story behind it and sent instructions to Palin not to say anything more about the wardrobe controversy. But Palin ignored those instructions and seemed to defend herself by making the following statement in Tampa, Florida:

"Those clothes, they are not my property. Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the RNC purchased, I'm not taking them with me."

(Taking them with you, Sarah? Why? Wherever would you be going?) A Palin aide later said that she felt compelled to defend herself, because "that's really not who she is."

Of course, all along Palin has had trouble sticking with the official McCain campaign line (to the extent that such exists). Remember earlier in the month, when McCain criticized Junior's decision to remove North Korea from the list of "state sponsors of terrorism?" Palin, apparently unaware of the campaign's statement, said of the decision "I have faith... that [Bush officials] are making this wise decision."

But Palin's most recent comments, the comments defending her wardrobe, seem a bit less ignorant and a bit more calculating, yes? It's as if she's decided that she needs to do something to salvage her own career from the electoral disaster that many believe will occur next Tuesday. And the McCain people, in keeping with the example set by their mad-with-rage leader, have reacted with nastiness. According to a McCain adviser:

"[Palin] is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

(But, doesn't that just make her a "maverick?")

This rift between Johnny and Sarah has been brewing for a while. Last week, MSNBC's Chuck Todd commented that, during a joint interview with McCain and Palin, there seemed to be no cohesion or chemistry between the two of them. Todd hinted that there was some resentment between the two candidates, as if each blamed the other for their mutual predicament.

As we approach Election Day it will be simply delicious to watch as the finger-pointing and every-[wo]man-for-himself behavior increases. The list of Republican mucky-mucks that have already jumped ship is long indeed: David Brooks, Peggy Noonan, Colin Powell, Chuck Hagel, David Frum... Look for this list to grow longer as we approach Judgment Day.

It seems that Republicans, at least, are convinced that Obama will be swept into the White House on a Democratic tidal wave that decimates the ranks of the Republican caucuses in both Congressional houses. Palin and Mitt Romney are already angling for position in the post-election struggle to lead the party.

But, if the looming disaster is as bad as I imagine it might be, the struggle for succession in the post-Bush GOP will be akin to a fight between rats over the last scrap of food on a sinking ship.

Racists and Republicans

"There is no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area." --Representative John Murtha (D-PA), October 15, 2008.

Congressman Murtha's statement, which he uttered to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has been mentioned a lot in the media, lately. Republicans have been pointing to it as yet another indication that Obama supporters have a low opinion of the "pro-America" parts of the country (as Sarah Palin calls them). Their apparent outrage, however, carries a whiff of desperation as polls and speculative electoral maps seem to indicate that John McCain is a drowning man.

Republicans excel at faking outrage; false piety and moral hypocrisy are their stock-in-trade. They beat their breasts, and roll their eyes to the heavens, bemoaning how they have been slandered when anyone accuses them of racism, while at the same time, they do everything they can to suppress voter turnout in minority areas, impugn and alienate undocumented workers, and foment anti-Islamic sentiments. No one expects any less from them.

Going back to Murtha's comment, though, and myself being unconstrained by the decorum of electoral politics, I'll say this: Murtha was right on the money. If rural, western Pennsylvania is anything at all like rural, eastern Oregon, where I spent half of my life, racism is rampant there; a good share of the people that live there could easily be described as "rednecks;" might in fact embrace that moniker with pride.

A week ago, some acquaintances of mine, an interracial couple, recounted some of the experiences they had had on a recent trip to eastern Ohio, just across the state line from the area about which Murtha was speaking. They said that they encountered hostile stares, and under-the-breath mutterings, and that they were even followed by a truck full of local yokels. They attributed all of it to their being interracial.

When I was a freshman at Redmond High School, in Redmond, Oregon, I arrived at school one morning to a hubbub occurring on the front steps of the building. Three or four boys, wearing their ubiquitous cowboy hats and cowboy boots and their ridiculous Western style belts, were gathered around a black girl who was coming to school for the first day. There had been no black kids in school previously. These boys, these ugly cowards were jeering at this girl, calling her "nigger," pushing her, hitting her. She tried to stand up to them, saying "My name is not nigger, do you hear me?" But they were pitiless and unrelenting. To this day, thirty-years later, it is a point of deep shame to me that I walked past the whole scene without doing or saying something to defend that girl, or to offer my hand in friendship. She eventually ran home, crying, and never returned to our school. I will carry my guilt for the rest of my life.

Times may have changed in the 30 years since then, and it is unfair to paint entire regions as racist because of the actions of a few. But racism does live in all of our hearts. And no one, not one person in that crowd of people, came to the defense of that poor girl.

And, now, I suppose, I've arrived at the source of my deep-seated revulsion toward Republicans and conservatives. I despise them for the things that they reveal in me... my lack of courage at a crucial moment, my indecision and fear in the face of evil. But that's my issue.

The point I started out trying to make is this: Republicans solicit the racist vote, then use fake outrage to provide the racists with a cover, with a pretense that their views aren't really racist. The people that pretend to be offended by Congressman Murtha's statement would never have voted for a Democrat anyway, let alone a black man. So, while it gives the Republicans something to get their panties into a bunch over, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference toward the outcome of this election.

(For a deep examination of racial issues, I refer you to the blog of my friend Ridwan Laher.)

In eight days, if, as all signs seem to indicate, the Republicans go down in flames, I'll be thinking of that girl, 30 years ago, that had the misfortune of trying to attend high school in one of Sarah Palin's "pro-America" parts of the country. I can never completely atone for my sin against her, just as this country can never truly atone for the sins of institutionalized slavery, or genocide, or the other ugly manifestations of racism.

But, by God, we can elect Barack Obama.

Obama for Oregon

While nationally, the pundits and campaign advocates caution that the US Presidential race is not over, one is not likely to hear the term "battleground" to describe the state of Oregon. A clear majority of Oregonians stand with Barack Obama.

The big question for Oregon, this time around, at least as far as electoral representation, is whether Oregonians will return Gordon Smith to his seat in the US Senate, or replace him with the Speaker of the Oregon State House, Jeff Merkley.

As I've pointed out at different times over the last year, Smith has proven himself to be a weak-willed back-bencher in the Republican caucus, who runs back to the political middle when he comes up for reelection.

This year, with the Republican brand in the toilet, Smith has been frantic in his efforts to obscure his record, to seem moderate. His campaign ads make no mention of his party affiliation, mention Junior Bush only as an adversary, and highlight Smith's supposed willingness to work with Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, and John Kerry.

Of course, it's a ruse.

Oregonians who want to end the Republican malaise that has sickened our country, who want to crush the spirit of the neo-conservatives and plutocrats and right-wing religious freaks, who want progressive, populist representation in the US Senate have an excellent candidate in Jeff Merkley.

Barack Obama thinks so too.



Jeff showed his chops while debating Smith earlier this month. By sending Jeff Merkley to the US Senate, Oregonians can show that we're ready to do our part to start repairing the damage that has been done to this country by Gordon Smith's puppet-masters.

Republicans: Behold the void!

Come! Take your reward! Yea, I bid ye take it with both hands!

I'm speaking to you, Republicans. I'm speaking to David Reinhard at the Oregonian; I'm speaking to Lars Larsen, the loud-mouthed boor; I'm speaking to the insufferable termagant Ann Coulter, and to Rush Limbaugh and that blow-hard Sean Hannity. And I'm speaking to you, too, nameless, faceless Republican who so eagerly fell in behind your bungling, half-witted leader, Junior Bush; you who saw him as a prophet and a noble leader and a man who could finally make everyone else out there suffer for the sin of being happy even though they weren't like you, didn't think the way you thought, didn't dress like you or act like you, and, worst of all, didn't care what you thought about them.

You are about to reap what you have sown. You are about to inherit the wind. The American people are about to stuff your collective foot into your collective mouth, where you can gag on the stink of your gangrenous creed.

GOP leaders and apologists are despondent and frightened. Some of them are predicting the loss of as many as 34 seats in the House of Representatives. There is talk of the Democrats having 60 seats in the US Senate. That's a filibuster-proof majority, you pigs! Eat it! Poor Mad Johnny is the sap who gets stuck holding the bag of s**t that you left for him.

The American people recognize that it was the Republicans' behind-the-scenes sucking up to banking and insurance industry lobbyists that brought us to this financial crisis. The American people know that it was Dick Cheney's insatiable greed that brought about the criminal and unnecessary war in Iraq. They know that it was all a filthy lie! They have seen the corruption that rots your souls, morally and ethically.

And it's all coming apart for you, isn't it? All that insane logic, that twisted Bizarro-world crap that was so f**king ridiculous it was offensive, it's not working any more, is it? All the Karl Rove hatred and division just isn't playing like it used to. Between the morass of the war and the evaporation of everyone's life savings, no one seems to be listening when you bleat about the threat posed by gays or Mexicans or terrorists.

So, drink deeply from your cup of woe, Republicans. Drink it to its dregs. Taste despair and savor it.

Sail on, sailors!

You can't possibly know how good it feels to write this post. For those of us who have suffered fools like you for that last 8 years, now is our time of vindication. The price, economic catastrophe, unending war, ecological disaster, is high... so high that the small satisfaction we gain from seeing you humiliated and ridiculed cannot come close to assuaging our anger. But, one takes what one can get.

Reap your reward, Republicans. Reap it, damn you. Reap it!

Scotty and I: Burning down Berlin

A dome somewhere in Berlin

Back in 1999, while I was taking my Grand European Tour, I met up with an Australian named Scotty in Stockholm, Sweden. Scotty was doing his "walkabout" through Europe before returning home to Melbourne to get married and start his job as a chef.

He and I quickly became friends in that way that travelers do, and after a couple of days of partying in Stockholm, we set out for Berlin and points south, taking the train from Stockholm to Malmö, then catching a ferry over the North Sea, to Sassnitz and thence to Berlin.

Scotty and I on our way to Berlin

We arrived in Berlin and had to scramble to find a room. Our arrival coincided with the Berlin Marathon and rooms in the central part of the city were scarce. After some frantic dialing and some help from a hotel clerk that took pity on us, we managed to land a room in what was formerly East Berlin, unloaded our gear, and hopped on the U-Bahn for downtown looking to party.

Let me tell you, Scotty knew how to party. That evening was a blur of loud bars, blaring music and lots and lots of booze. As we wandered around that fast-paced city, its streets alive with young people, cars, trains, and bicycles, we encountered many different people, all of whom are, I'm afraid, little more than blurry memories.

Dade (quite drunk) and Cristina, the Brazilian bartender

At one point in the evening, I remember sitting at the counter of a small bar, having a conversation with a very drunk local. Scotty spoke only English, I spoke English and Spanish, the bartender, a beautiful young woman named Cristina from Brazil, spoke Spanish and German, and the drunken local spoke only German. The conversation worked like this: The German said something to the bartender, who translated to me in Spanish, which I then translated to English for Scotty. The process was then reversed when Scotty replied. Whether or not the original thought that was uttered on one end of the chain even remotely related to what was translated on the other is probably a question for the ages. But, as so often happens with conversations between drunks, voices grew louder and more boisterous, and the entire scene ended with the German local being asked to leave by Cristina.

Much later, around four in the morning, I told Scotty, "I've had enough. I'm going back to the room."

Scotty was deep in conversation with an Australian woman, a fellow traveler whom we had met somewhere along the line in our drunken procession. He tilted his glass in my direction and gave me a wink and a nod. "Cheers, mate," he said. I stumbled back to U-Bahn, somehow found my way to our room and crashed.

Some enchanted evening...

I awoke around noon the next day to find that Scotty had, in fact, made it back. He was sleeping soundly in his bed. Even though he was asleep, he looked hung-over. God knows I was.

I showered, then went out to mail some postcards and get some breakfast. I returned to the room a couple hours later. Scotty had not yet risen, but when he heard me come in, he threw his feet over the side of the bed, blindly groped for his cigarettes and lighter on the bed stand, got one in his mouth, lit it, and took a deep drag. Only then did he open his eyes and blearily look over at me. "Let's go get a beer," he rasped.

As I said, Scotty knew how to party.

Checkpoint Charlie

That day, we went on a walking tour of Berlin. We went through the Checkpoint Charlie museum, climbed to the top of the new Reichstag, and saw the bullet-scarred colonnades, still marked from the apocalyptic battle for Berlin in 1945. The Red Army suffered some 5000 casualties in the quarter mile advance from the Spree River to the Reichstag as the Third Reich convulsed in its final death throes.

At the time of our visit, Berlin was a city very much in a state of reconstruction. As I looked out from the top of the Reichstag, the cityscape was a veritable forest of construction cranes. One of the results of the reunification was that the seat of government was now this mighty city, the center of a nation of some 80 million people. It was an impressive sight.

Bullet-scarred collonades

As we made our way around Berlin, I was struck by a certain incongruity. It seemed to me that Berlin, during the daytime, is a very different place than Berlin at night. In contrast to the crowds of partying youngsters and the loud, boisterous characters that roamed the street at night, the diurnal Berliners were an unsmiling, down-to-business lot.

A remnant of the Berlin Wall in the Checkpoint Charlie museum

Scotty and I caught a glimpse of that legendary Prussian discipline and conformity as we wandered around the streets that day. One thing we noticed early on, was that the locals would stand patiently on the sidewalk, waiting for the signal to change before crossing, regardless of whether the street was clear. Scotty and I had no such inhibitions. If there was no traffic, we crossed regardless of the signal.

Well, no one ever said a word to us, but the pressure to conform was palpable. By the end of the day, Scotty and I found ourselves waiting on the sidewalk, just like two regular Germans. And here's the rub: we waited even if there was no one there to observe!

The wee, wee hours...

Well, of course, nighttime came again, and things loosened up. That night, Scotty and I went to a free concert by a Japanese rock band underneath the Brandenburg Tor. More drunken revelry ensued.

We spent another day in Berlin. It was a great time. But my travels with Scotty weren't over by a long shot. We eventually decided we'd had enough of Berlin and hopped the train to Prague. But that's another story...