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Personal Political

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Warning. This is an uncharacteristic post. I feel the need to write about something that has been haunting my thoughts since yesterday. It’s about a quick clip I saw on the news. I don’t even remember what they were talking about.

George W. Bush and Laura Bush are walking toward a helicopter. The camera’s view is from the back and to the side, so that the view is a three-quarter view from the back – you can sort of see their profiles. They walk side by side. There is a man in uniform standing at salute next to the helicopter door.

At the time, I commented to John that it sure was a weird, half-hearted, wavy little semi-salute gesture that Bush gave to the man as he started to enter the helicopter. That was all.

But ever since, the image of the two of them walking to the helicopter keeps coming to my mind.

His posture was odd, twisted to the side in a very subtle way. Although they walked side by side, I had the distinct impression that Laura was sheparding him.

When this image comes into my mind, I am overwhelmed with pity. I feel as though I want to cry, as though I want to hug them both and help to heal them somehow.

Yeah. I know. It’s bizarre. I am opposed to almost everything Bush has done. I don’t even like them. I don’t quite think they are of the same level of horribleness as say, Cheney and Gonzales and those oil executives who wouldn’t testify under oath, but they are in the same general kind of category – people for whom other people don’t matter very much.

Looking at these two people, I wonder if they fully realize what has happened to our country. He thinks he’s a strong leader, but he’s been played. He wanted to be a compassionate conservative, but his administration is just the opposite of both – it’s cruel and radically opposed to American values. Do they know? Do they understand? Could it really, truly be intentional? Or is he just in over his head?

Suddenly I felt the tragic dimension of it. He should never have become the President of the United States.

Yes, I blame him. It’s his responsibility. Still, I think of Judas hanging from the tree, and I always thought that the best Christian would be one who prayed for his soul.

I don’t know why this little clip affected me this way. Maybe because he wasn’t speaking. He just looked like an overgrown depressed kid. Is it possible that he could find something inside – that he could turn around? – or is it far too late for that?

Or maybe he knows something we don’t know?

Where does this pity come from? Why now? It makes no sense to me.

Nuclear Plans, Libby’s Friend, Scope of War, SOTU

Nuclear Plans, Libby’s Friend, Scope of War, SOTU

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Some recommended reading – do your homework.

Saving the World By Stopping the Pentagon’s Programs
By Alexander Zaitchik, AlterNet

All that work against nuclear proliferation – gone, gone, gone. Another way we make the world a more dangerous place.

Then there is “Complex 2030,” a proposal to consolidate and update the entire nuclear complex, including the opening of a new plutonium “pit” facility capable of producing 125 new bombs a year. Estimated price tag: $150 billion over 25 years. The Bush administration and the Department of Energy argue that the overhaul is necessary to maintain the country’s deterrence and close aged plants, but arms control experts who have read the fine print say otherwise.

“The current nuclear stockpile is not in need of replacement, all of the existing nuclear weapons sites would still be in operation under the new plan, and the fundamental environmental problems of weapons production would not be solved,” states a joint report issued by more than a dozen nuclear watchdog groups, including Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Furthermore, the increased design, production and testing capabilities of Complex 2030 could spark a new nuclear arms race.”

…The major nuclear powers cannot continue to simultaneously refine their arsenals while keeping the rest of the world in 1944 by threat of force; only a madman thinks threats and preemptive strikes constitute a coherent or sustainable nonproliferation strategy. Nor can we continue to allow the production of fissile material and expect it to remain forever out of dangerous hands. We cannot have our yellow cake and eat it, too.

If we don’t come to grips with the dead-end of the nuclear double-standard, and begin soon the brave and historic grapple with the nuclear genie, we race toward a climax as awful as it is certain.

Take a look at Payson’s blog entry (Think Progress)on Chuck Hagel’s claim that the White House originally wanted the 2002 Iraq War Resolution to cover the entire Middle East. No-one else picked this up from the men style column at GQ? It ought to be on the front page.

Scooter Libby and Me
By Nick Bromell, The American Scholar, posted at AlterNet

Childhood friend of Scooter Libby’s shares questions he wants to ask him, and comments on the differences between liberalism and fundamentalism as they affect current US policy. This is worth a read just for the clear explanation of the difference between truth and the Truth (How did I miss Lynne Cheney’s article “The Roots of Today’s Lying Epidemic: The English Department Virus”? ). Oh, on lying?

Keep an eye out for fact checking updates on the State of the Union Address. The discussion on Charlie Rose was pretty good, and ABC has collected some citizen comments. To my ears, all Bush is saying…. is give war a chance.