demnan's quest

Restoring Law and Order

Two weeks ago, the Tuesday after the V for P&A's  Town Hall Forum on Impeachment I attended a rally and lobbying effort sponsored by the ACLU called the Day to Restore Law and Order.  The purpose of the effort was to rescind the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and restore habeas corpus.  There was a great crowd, in the thousands, some said (although with a complete media black-out, I can't say for sure how many were there).   During the rally there were constant calls for impeachment, which I'm sure speakers, Senators Leahy, Harken, Dodd, Cardin and Congressman Nadler  heard.   But when Dennis Kucinich took the stand the crowd went electric.  Here was a public official who had given the people what they yearned for.  Here was a man who wasn't afraid to put impeachment on the table and stand up for our rights.  Here was the guy who really feels the President and Vice President were not "above the law".  And the crowd was grateful.  Even the hip-hop guys didn't get the response that Kucinich did.  He was greeted like a real star.

I had just decided shortly before that that I was going to work for Kucinich for President.  I had supported John Edwards, and I still feel he would make a wonderful President.  After hearing him speak about poverty, and his concern to provide a shining example in the world and how he would repair the damage done to our reputation by the Bush Administration, I felt I would put my support behind him.  But Edwards stops short of greatness, and I sense a weakness in him, especially with remarks he's made about Iran.  In the end he doesn't go far enough.  And he doesn't support impeachment. 

So John, here is your "Dear John".  One of these three Senators:  Clinton, Obama or Edwards will likely win the nomination, and I have nothing against any of them, but I can't support any of the top three right now, not when there is someone in this race whose stance on the issues is exactly like mine.  Not when there is someone who actually uses every day to restore law and order as well as peace and accountability.

Entering the Citadel of Power in Annandale

Virginians for Peace and Accountability  visit Tom Davis (May 7^th 2007).

The little neighborhood where Davis maintains his staff office in Annandale, VA sure doesn’t look like the Citadel of Power.  It looks like a little working class suburb except for the Vietnamese signs everywhere.  Annandale is the home of Little Saigon.  How ironic that we should pass through here to speak out against another war which feels so much like the one that impacted this neighborhood when Vietnamese refugees came here to live 30 years ago.

Davis, being a politician first, appeared gracious enough to speak with us, however, he also was unmoved.  Not that this should be surprising.  The Congress “Critter” learns early on the value of being moved less by the peoples’ desires than by Corporate interest.   But we had our say.  I was very moved by Tony’s presentation.  Somehow the visual effect of all those names said more than an appeal for the Constitution.  Perhaps it shouldn’t be that way, but it was.

Davis disputes this point.  He believes that just because we don’t like what President Bush does doesn’t mean we can impeach him.  Davis defended Bush and Cheney while being strangely negative toward them at same time - an odd, cynical and unconvincing combination.

Davis asked us to come back – that was the important thing.  He said he would keep an open mind and let the investigation unfold.  What I believe he really meant was that he would test the political waters and if his corporate masters decided that Bush and Cheney had to go, he would support it.  He also repeatedly said that visits like ours “made him better” in responding.  I believe he used us to practice deflecting more powerful critics.

In the end the encounter made us better as well.  It gave us a chance to focus and hone our message.

Lobbying for Impeachment

Our investigation for impeachment group, the Va Patriots for Peace and Accountability met with a minority side staffer of the Government Reform Committee for Tom Davis (our Congressman).  Brooke Bennett was like most Davis staffers I've encountered, courteous and good at her job.  She listened to us and we had a good exchange and I hope we can continue to have dialogue with her and with Davis, even though as a Republican, I'm sure there are many differences between us and them.

We presented some particulars we wanted investigated.  I won't go into that here as I think we all know what those items might be.

We also met with Kucinich, actually we walked in while he was talking in a very casual friendly way to PDA members.  His wife Elizabeth was there and gave a very friendly smile.  I as a woman have to notice that if she ever became First Lady she is so beautiful and slender that she would give most women in this country an inferiority complex, she seems oblivous to this idea, the adoring and intelligent political wife, with a peace sign on her blazer, I have to assume she is one of those rare people who are as beautiful inside as out.  I gave Kucinich one of our local Impeachment group's IMPEACH HIM buttons.  Now I can die happy, I've done my best in this world and perhaps Kucinich is one of the few Congress Critters who would listen to us.

One of our group was an 8th Congressional District member, and although this wasn't  a planned meeting we asked to talk with someone from Mr. Moran's office, it was rather more unpleasant than I would have thought.  Instead of being invited in, we were escorted out in the hall to meet with this young man whose name was Heath.  Heath was really rather contemptous of us, I must say.  I hope  that's how Congressman Moran's staffers treat anyone working for impeachment.  I'm not sure why Moran doesn't want to defend the Constitution and investigate.  In Henry Waxman's office we gathered little paperback copies of the Constitution, and having already met with Davis's office who allowed for us to sit comfortably in a meeting room it was rather a bad situation.  Perhaps the staffer who normally deals with troubling impeachment people had already left for the weekend, I don't know.

Ice on the Potomac

Just a few days ago I could look out my cubicle window and see flowing water as the Potomac River gently lapped by.  I was getting a little bit hopeful about the Levin/Warner Resolution in the Senate.   Now the Potomac  is iced over, so is the Senate resolution on the Iraq war.  As Senator Webb (still enjoy saying that) said:

"Winston Churchill once wrote about watching good ideas getting nibbled to death by ducks.  Last night, we saw that phenomenon in action.  We had before us a measure that would allow this Congress to speak clearly of its concerns regarding the woeful lack of leadership by the President on an issue that affects our nation and our military people like no other.  And the other side - including some Senators who had helped to draft the resolution, and had put their names on it - punted the ball down field, rather than giving the people of this country the debate they not only need, but are calling for in every public opinion poll."

Senator Webb was referring to the other Virginia Senator:   Mr. Warner punted.

We are going to have to reach out to the Republicans.  There is no way around it.  If we want an end to the Iraq war (and not a start to the increasingly likely Iran war), we are going to have to convince them somehow to stop the monsters in the White House.  There must be a way to do this.  We have no choice.

When a local group of activists started the 11th Congressional District Impeachment Committee, I still wasn't getting this, but others in the group were.  We have a devoted activist in the group who has personally gone to Tom Davis (our Republican Representative) and implored him to stop the war.  Did it do any good?  Not yet, but she keeps on trying, and we will be trying to get our Congressman's attention.

I'm also going to sit down and write to Senator Warner tonight.  I had thanked him for writing his resolution, he deserves to hear from me on this.  So I implore everyone to do the same.  It is now convince a Republican time.  We're desperate, we have no choice.

Join us for Impeachment

If you live in the 11th District of Virginia, or in Prince William County please come and join us for our activities to investigate the President and Vice President for war crimes.

http://groups.google.com/group/va11thimpeach?hl=en

Please contact us at va11thimpeach@googlegroups.com if you wish to join, joining is by invitation only.

Thank you and

PAZ,

Nancy

Skelatons in the Closet

This Halloween-like expression occurred to me today when I was bringing my Mom up to date on the latest political news.  George Allen has an arrest record, one he refuses to disclose.  Although he makes explanations, he does not provide proof.   It's funny, with Republicans you can have an actual criminal record and you get protected, if you're a Democrat, and have a marital indiscrection, it's tantemont to causing the end of civilization unless we know every thorny detail.

I always remind my Mom that although she likes Katie Courik, Dan Rather was screwed out of his job.  He came close to unearthing a very ugly skelaton in the Bush closet, and that in our society will never do.  Yes there were skelatons in the Bush past, and perhaps during his Guard years, not only did he opt out of his minor commitment to Guard Duty while my brother, and countless others were in Vietnam, his years also included drug use that led him not to take a physical in the National Guard.  Dan was on the case.  Truly, Dan fell on his journalistic sword.

These Republicans are so powerful that whoever knows about the incidents with Allen is afraid to come forward.  Who can blame them?  Dan was getting older and finally just got disgusted with it all, I suppose.  Someone out there knows why Allen was arrested, and if the character assasination of his own sister's book wouldn't be enough to return him to private life, perhaps this would, but at what personal cost of a Republican strong arm?

We've already lost our Democracy if this continues.  I hope we get a not totally crooked  election.  We might have chance to turn things around if we do.

But here lies the entire reason why the Republicans have had so many corruption scandals.  Truly, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Marriage and Taxes

George Allen recently came forth spewing another negative ad about taxes.  Oh yes, if you are a rich married Republican, what a sin it is for you to pay taxes!  Child tax credits, two income families, maybe some rich relatives to leave you money.  By God!  George Allen will prevent those sneaky Democrats from trying to tax you so that single income, non-inheriting families and single people might get by.  I mean, you might have to forgo buying that new Hummer or boat you always wanted.  Good old George will see you through!  You need to build that grand new deck on the McMansion!

In the mean time, how does a single person survive in this economy?  The mortgage is so high that the small condos are selling out around me to families that are packing in four or more people in units less than 1,000 sq feet.  And the my wage went down 20k last year.  So I don't give a fricking damn about your rich man's taxes.  Of course Republicans have never cared about single people, wer'e the forgotten people.    They just consider a single person a social problem.   So George, just hope the suckers in your court don't have single young adult children trying to buy or rent a home out there.

The Shame of Being a Republican

I was just reading Ian Buruma's article in a recent New Yorker, "War and Remembrance".  This article is about the premier genius of latter 20th century German fiction, Gunter Grass and revelations that Grass had been involved in a small way in the SS  during the latter part of WWII. Grass has come under criticism, not so much for the fact that he participated in something that many Germans of his age did, but that his involvement with the Secret Police of the SS was kept a secret for more than half a century while he condemned others for the same involvement.  It is a shame that the genius who wrote 'A Tin Drum' should suffer so much shame that he would produce his own judgmental cover-up.

This article makes me wonder how the world and this country will perceive the Republican party of this country in years to come.   Something is very wrong with the Republican Party and the Democratic Party's complacent enablers.  You can see this in Rep. Foley's use of his power to try and seduce young men who worked for him as Pages.  You can see it in the use of torture in Abu Garab and Gitamano, you can see it in FEMA's neglect in New Orleans.  You can see it in what has happened in our schools since "No Child's Behind Left" as Journalist Greg Palast aptly calls it.

Most importantly you can see it in the callous disregard for the truth that began our war in Iraq.  Where was the moral compass that we were able to have after WWII - that compass helped us rebuild the great nation of Germany which is now reunited, Democratic and more the country of Beethoven and Goethe than the country of Hitler and Himmler?  When Auschwitz was liberated, it was liberated by segregated black soldiers - that’s true.  But we were moving in the right direction then, just on the cusp of having an integrated military.  This integrated military was so helpful to raising up a black middle class in this country.  I don't know if there was a conspiracy behind the assassin who killed Dr. King.  But very few in this country would have voted to jail and torture Martin Luther King in the 60's.  Many whites took to the streets to support the Civil Rights movement because that was the great moral compass of our country. 

But today, will we vote to jail and torture Muslims and other dissidents in this country?  Is this where we are headed?  Who makes the rules when a President has such an absolute arbitrary power?  I learned in school that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but since Social Studies class is now cancelled due to No Child's Behind Left, this phrase will be conveniently deleted from the folk memory of our people in years to come.  I know there are bad people who conspire against us, but can't we just try them on charges and move on?

But when someone finally rescues us from the prison our society has now become, whether it be the proverbial feces that hits the fan, or otherwise, will Republicans say they didn't know about the extent of the torture being inflicted?  Will they say they didn't really mean to destroy our freedom of dissent?  Will they turn on each other and point fingers?  Probably.

I remember 9/11 too.  As my blog attests, I was right in the middle of it.  Let me tell you about a pretty Moroccan girl who used to be a cashier at the luncheon place in the building where I worked.  Days after 9/11, she abandoned her scarf for a baseball hat, piling up her thick dark beautiful hair in that scarf, smiling, taking our money and fearing us.  There were many military in our building (selective service).  The outpouring of sympathy and support of the military officers was very wonderful to see.  In a few days, she was happily back in her usual dress.  That's America at its finest.

Our Hidden Jewish Heritage

It was discomforting to see George Allen's recent reaction to the suggestion that his grandfather was Jewish.  It brought back to me a time when I used to have political arguments with my conservative father, and one time, when he was making an anti-Semitic statement I told him he was probably Jewish and he looked Jewish.  Little did I know I had unearthed perhaps a very guarded family secret.  For it stopped him in his tracks.  He knew his original surname was very common among German-Jewish people, even though, at the time I didn't. 

Then my mother told me that his father's family were Germans who had settled in Indianapolis and his father, a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, was considered the black sheep of the family.  My grandparents were divorced, and that cut us off from knowing anything about the family.  My grandmother had remarried and my father had taken her husband's name providing us with an English last name.

I've never been able to find out much about my father's family, even though I have searched them on the Internet.  My best friend is Jewish and the first time I showed her a picture of my grandfather, she said, Nancy, you never told me you were Jewish but I've always suspected you were."  She felt that my intellect and my face bore a link to a Jewish heritage.

Howard Stern used to have a contest called "Who's the Jew" on his radio program.  He would point out many people, celebrities, who had Jewish heritage that was perhaps surprising, due to the names, present religious affiliations, etc.   This also comes up in every election.  Remember when Kerry was accused of claiming an Irish heritage when he had German (and perhaps Jewish) roots?  Kerry was gracious and acknowledged his family proudly.

My favorite story of discovery is Madeline Albright.  Her discovery of her Jewish heritage seems typical of the upper class German-Jewish variety.  Everyone around you seems to know you're Jewish before you do!  But her parents tried to protect her from a heritage they sadly felt was very dangerous.  But when she went to Israel she was openly welcomed as a sister.  I just think that's really neat.  She learned something late in life about herself.

So this night on Rosh Hashanah, I'd just like to acknowledge that there are probably many thousands of people in America, especially in the Midwest, who are unaware of their Jewish roots.  George, you should have embraced this idea, because from wherever we come as Americans, it will always be a cool and free thing to discover.  You should never be ashamed of who you are and where you come from.

Jim Webb's "Woman Problem"

I know the bloggers at Raising Kane do not want to address this but Jim Webb does have a serious woman problem.  How do I know?  I use Jim's own way to scope out how people feel, I ask my family - and my 85-year-old mother has serious reservations about Jim Webb.  This was after I told her about "Born Fighting" - the book he wrote about her own heritage, the Scots-Irish.  Even after I told her that he had Hodges in his family (one of my Mom's family names) she didn't come around.  My mother doesn't like the stuff Webb wrote about women in the military.  His statements today during the debate were not quite enough to sway her. 

To give some background, my mother's family was from the mountains of Southern New York State and her parents came down to the DC area after WWI to make a living.  My Mom's family was poor people very similar to the Southern Appalachian people, and they lived in the Catskill town of Liberty, NY.  The women worked as seamstresses and the men with whatever trades they could get.  Later the Jewish community came to this area to establish tuberculosis sanatoriums, which was before the comedy clubs so popular there today. 

My grandfather's family was from Binghamton, NY.  He left home at 13 to join the circus, because from a family of 11 and being the eldest, he had to go out and fend for himself.  Eventually he went to plumbing school in NYC.  My grandfather was the first plumbing inspector for Alexandria, VA.  He also put in the plumbing for Fort Belvoir and was a Mason who had a hand in building the famous Masonic Temple in Alexandria that sits near where the King Street metro goes today.

When my father went off to war as an Army officer and spent 2 years on Guadalcanal as an Army Captain of a trucking company, my mother got a job in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA - the same as its called today, but it was actually a Torpedo Factory - my teenage mother helped make torpedoes there during WWII.  The women worked so hard in that factory that the men (those who didn't go off to war) complained that the women had increased production too much.  That good old Scots-Irish spirit to fight the war had invaded them too.  They were fighting along side their men as best they could.

So this is the background from which my Mother perceives - and so with all the things I've told her about how similar Jim Webb is to our own family's life in working our way up, she still has trepidations.    She needs Jim Webb to understand that when their men go off to war the women continue fighting, in what ever form they need to.  And I hope someone will send him this blog and he will read about my family as I have read about his and understand where we come from.

At the rally at Robinson Middle School I was happy to greet again the first woman to be elected to the US. Congress from Virginia, Leslie Byrne.  And I had worked on her campaign with a dozen Woodbridge housewives and schoolteachers in 1992 and we were rewarded not only with our Congresswoman but also with a wonderful articulate President who turned things around economically and actually helped me get a new career in IT and independence from my family.

So this is where I come from, Mr. Webb.  I esteem you but you have a problem with women, so you need to address this. Ask your good friend Leslie Byrne.  She'll guide you along the way.