Well guys and gals, can y'all say "Potemkin Village"? Betcha can.
The House Committee on Reform and Oversight has been conducting the Tillman-Lynch Hearings. Fairly early in the war, both Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch were misrepresented by the Army for propaganda reasons. Tillman, you'll remember quit a pro- football team and joined up as a patriotic response to the events of 9/11. He was also killed by friendly fire while his group was being ambushed by the enemy. But rather than own the truth --that his death was due to friendly fire -- the Pentagon went to great pains to prevent his family from learning about the real cause and put their own spin. It took over a month for the real truth to get out. In the hearings, a fellow platoon member testified that he had been ordered not to tell anyone the truth. Kevin Tillman said the Army used his brother and set him up as a hero for it's own purposes. Jessica Lynch was that young gal rescued from an Iraqi hospital after her convoy was attacked and her driver, Lori Piestewa was killed. Ms. Lynch testified that she was there to be sure the truth got out -- that she did nothing extraordinary or heroic. "The bottom line," Lynch said, "is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate lies."
Yet another section of the House, the Judiciary Committee, today gave US Attorney General Gonzalez' aide Monica Goodling immunity for her cooperation. He really ought to resign. I tell you. And this business with dismissed U.S. Attorney, David Iglesias is just getting better and better. Newsweek's Michael Iskoff and Mark Hosenball reports that one of the reasons he was canned was because of being an "absentee landlord." The "absentee landlord" reason has been cited previously in other related documents and commentaries about the reason Iglesias was pink-slipped. That means, that he's not taking care of his work and spending too much time "off the reservation" that is the Justice Department. Now the kicker is that Iglesias is also a Navy Captain, and was doing his military reserve duty, "teaching classes on the war on terror. And there is this thing about not firing reservists for the performance of their reserve duty. Even Shrub backs that up. Alberto, seriously -- if ya need help burying your career, you've dug down as far as you can go.
Ah well... there is no place like Earth. But some several billion miles away, in a far galaxy, a planet is said to "resemble" earth. Well it's ain't like we're ready to go colonizing. I can imagine political regimes around the world with their key players salivating at the thought of being able to ship off a bunch of malcontents. Get away from Earth - settle new land -- take what you can and make of it what you will. Of course there'd be a mix of others from the professions and trades who would sign on for the adventure of it all. If I was in my 20's I'd be out in a shot! Heinlein was right. When they start wanting ID, things are way too crowded! (pardon my paraphasing. ) Oh well, I'd still sign up to help build or support building space craft for exploration. Give me a decent apartment close to work, even on site, a reasonable canteen and bookstore, a reasonable stipend and yeah...
I see Russ Simmons - a hip-hop pioneer/mogul - this week came out and said that "artists" really should refrain from the unholy trio of rap (the N-word, B***** and Ho'. ) That's nice. He listens to the market. Now about that "don't snitch" business. Man, oh man, that is some fugly shit my friends! That is saying the poorest neighborhoods are lost to us; that the lives of people within them have no value, deserve no justice when harmed or exploited and that the criminal parasites can prey on them freely whenever they want. It says there isn't anything to protect the decent folks who just want to live and prosper by the work of their minds and hands. I do NOT believe that decency and aspiration should be the sacrificial blood feeding the parasites. It's crap. I don't think that's what Douglass, Du Bois, King and others envisioned writing for freedom and dreams and ridding society of the shackles of oppression.
