Notes from the Red Planet
[This was being written in piecemeal fashion from my wife's grandmother's home in Montgomery, Alabama. I never knew I'd ever have a reason to go to Alabama in my life, but here I am and I'm enjoying some very warm Southern hospitality from Paps.]

Just watched a segment on CNN of troops from the Walter Reed hospital giving their thanksgiving messages to family and buddies back on the front. Both Parie and I started tearing up, watching some with new prosthetics (or awaiting them) trying their best to send good cheer. Dammit, this angers and saddens me beyond the pale. It shouldn't have come to this. These men and women were sent on a mission with a goal that seems to change every few months.

I was just watching the first half of a PBS Frontline episode called "Rumsfeld's War" (I'll get to the second half when I return), which detailed how Vietnam had changed the goal-seeking and preparations for future combat missions and was distilled into the Powell Doctrine:

1. Clear reasoning for mission and goals to achieve,
   
2. As large a force as possible to achieve goals
   
3. Clear exit strategy

It looks like we're onto the Bush Doctrine:

1. Let the Neocons' preemption ideology rule the day, no matter what
   
2. Don't allow dissent, moderated views, or time to gather full evidence to get in the way of #1
   
3. Change the administration message whenever items from #2 get too hard to ignore or stamp down
   
4. Find something new to apply #1 to to take the public's attention away from the clusterfuck of the initial foray

I love America and what it has stood for, but I'm not necessarily proud of the America that my government is trying to export to the rest of the world. I'm thankful for the folks who have volunteered to protect our nation, but I'm angry at the way they've been abused by this administration.

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My pal Anne recently gave me a book by George Lakoff--Don't Think of an Elephant--which I haven't gotten to yet, but Parie has been burning through the first part of it quickly. It's about how the Right has been able to tweak language to make their agenda sound more paletable, and how the Left can start to do the same thing to better frame the discussion. My pal Kari just pointed out that one of the chapters is available online. Check it out, but all four of us highly recommend the book. It's slim, very readable, and not that expensive--a perfect Christmas present to yourself or your favorite progressive (or one who should be)

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I have a vision of purgatory, and it is the Montgomery Regional Airport. We're waiting for our plane in the sole gate area (servicing the airport's 5 gates), and are being treated to a cacophony of multiple TVs tuned to different news stations, airport announcements, and country music. The TV directly above us is tuned to the Fox Propaganda Channel, which has been covering the big events of the weekend--the Ukraine, possible delays in Iraqi elections, the silver lining of the devaluing of the dollar, and Pat Boone (seems he's got several new releases out right about now; he finished his interview noting how thankful he was for Fox News and how good it's been for America these past few months).

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And now, a couple of quotes that some folks have sent my way recently, the first from my pal Kari and the second from my pal Jessica:

Throughout the history of mankind there have been murderers and tyrants; and while it may seem momentarily that they have the upper hand, they have always fallen. Always.
-- Gandhi

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental - men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack, or count himself lost. His one aim is to disarm suspicion, to arouse confidence in his orthodoxy, to avoid challenge. If he is a man of convictions, of enthusiasm, or self-respect, it is cruelly hard.

The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even a mob with him by the force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second or third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically the most devious and mediocre - the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920