Saturday, August 28, 2004

Friday, August 27, 2004

I got a young man named George W. Bush in the National Guard when I was Lt. Gov. of Texas and I'm not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. And I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do, when you're in office you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked through the Vietnam Memorial the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been because it was the worst thing that I did was that I helped a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard and I'm very sorry about that and I'm very ashamed and I apologize to you as voters of Texas.

Max Cleland, minus the three limbs he lost in Vietnam, showed up in his wheelchair outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Wednesday to suggest that the president take the simple and decent step of condemning the slime that is being spread by Bush supporters against the war record of John Kerry.

He didn't get very far. The president was busy vacationing and had neither the time nor the inclination to meet with Mr. Cleland, a former U.S. senator who was himself the target of vicious, unconscionable attacks by the G.O.P. slime machine when he ran for re-election in Georgia in 2002.

Later, at a press conference under the hot Crawford sun, Mr. Cleland told reporters: "The question is, where is George Bush's honor? Where is his shame?"

Mr. Cleland reminded reporters of the scurrilous attacks by Bush forces against Senator John McCain in the Republican presidential primary in 2000 and said: "Keep in mind, this president has gone after three Vietnam veterans in four years. That's got to stop."

In what is surely the most important election of the last half-century, we seem trapped in the politics of the madhouse. What is incredible is that these attacks on men who served not just honorably, but heroically, are coming from a hawkish party that is controlled by an astonishing number of men who sprinted as far from the front lines as they could when they were of fighting age and their country was at war.

On September 2nd, 2004, at approximately 10 pm, George W. Bush will appear on television screens nationwide. For some of our fellow citizens, this will be a moment of joy. But for most of us, it will be the low point of an incredibly exasperating week.

Until now, there have been only two options: miss the speech (either by screaming at the television or turning it off), or bottle up the frustration within us, causing irreparable psychological harm. The first option is unbecoming of citizens in a democracy. The second option is just terrible. But now, for the first time, we have a better way. At the moment we see the president on our television screens, we will rise. We will throw open our windows. And, as George W. Bush moves to the podium in New York City, we will send him a message about his bid for reelection: we will yell, "fuggedaboudit!"

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Najaf police round up reporters

Iraqi police, angered by news coverage of the standoff around the Imam Ali Mosque, rousted journalists from their hotel at gunpoint Wednesday night and took them to hear Chief Ghaleb al-Jazaeri criticize their reporting.

About 50 journalists were taken to police headquarters, including representatives of CNN, the British Broadcasting Corp., Agence France-Presse and several U.S. newspapers.

Iraqi police officials have expressed anger that journalists pay too much attention to al-Sadr.

Al-Zurufi later sent a bus to the hotel to collect journalists so he could deliver an apology, but the journalists refused to go.

Any student of Bush family campaigns could have seen the swift boat shiv shining a mile away. This old family has traditions - horseshoes, fishing, bad syntax and having the help do the dirty work in campaigns as well as the kitchen. And they are very good at getting jobs done without leaving fingerprints, without compromising their patrician image and their alleged character.

Even the audaciousness of this year's episode is not surprising. Who would have believed that George Bush, with all the trouble over his National Guard service, could get John Kerry in hot water for his combat duty and medals in Vietnam? Well, anyone who saw what George Bush did to former POW John McCain in the 2000 primaries, which was even more outrageous.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

When Republicans arrive in Manhattan for their convention next week, they'll be greeted by a giant billboard reminding them how much the Iraq war is costing the country. Modeled after the Times Square national debt ticker, the Cost of War billboard debuts Wednesday on the corner of 47th and Broadway. It's opening LED display puts the price America is paying for Iraq's occupation at $134,480,645,161, a figure that will increase by $122,820 a minute. The ever-escalating tab for the Iraq debacle will be displayed in midtown for several months courtesy of Project Billboard, a non-profit whose founders include Bay Area celebrity chef Alice Waters and big-time Democratic donor Deborah Rappaport.

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Though the billboard serves as a kind of rebuke to the invading Republicans, the timing is partly coincidental. Initially Project Billboard wanted to erect a sign in July. Its original design had a red, white and blue bomb with the slogan, "Democracy is best taught by example, not by war." Like so many other venues, though, the space that the group leased was owned by right-wing media monolith Clear Channel, which rejected the billboard. Project Billboard sued for breach of contract, and got the new spot as part of an out-of-court settlement.

The current debate about these two men's military service has put the spotlight on physical courage. But that really is a side issue in this campaign, if we're talking substance. The real issue isn't physical bravery but moral cowardice.

President Bush is an examplar of that quality in spades. And it cuts directly to his failures as president. Forget about thirty years ago, just think about the last three years.

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A moral coward is someone who lacks the courage to tell the truth, to accept responsibility, to demand accountability, to do what's right when it's not the easy thing to do, to clean up his or her own messes. Perhaps we could say that moral bravery is having both the courage of your convictions as well as the courage of your misdeeds.

As I've been saying here for the last couple days, the issue isn't that Bush ducked service in Vietnam. It's that he tries to smear other people's meritorious service without taking responsibility for what he's doing. He gets other people to do his dirty work for him. Again, that image of McCain calling him on his shameless antics and his look of fear, his look of feeling trapped.