from kevin tillman to god's ear

Kevin Tillman is Pat Tillman's brother. For those of you who don't know, Pat Tillman was a professional football player. He elected to give up his pro career and go to Iraq, because our country told him it was the right thing to do, and he died there, the victim of "friendly fire". His brother Kevin has written a moving tribute, available on the web at http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday.

I urge you to read it, and to take it to heart. Pat Tillman was a good man, and we as a nation sent him to his death, for no reason that wasn't a lie.

that'll keep 'em out!

The president signed a bill today, authorizing 700 miles of FENCE along the US-Mexico border. Yup, that'll keep 'em out. You bet. A fence couldn't even keep my terrier out... but it will keep illegal immigrants at bay.

Gotta show we're tough on illegal immigration, because the ELECTION is in a few weeks. BTW, there is no money in the bill to pay for the fence. However, estimates are in the billion dollar range. For a billion dollars, you could pay people to just stay home. And nobody would have to build nothin'.

Have we LOST OUR MINDS?? We really need another symbol of US oppression. Our very own BERLIN WALL. I can feel the love just burgeoning across the world.

a sad day for our country

Today, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, otherwise known as the terrorist interrogation bill. With that one action, habeas corpus is dead, and all of our civil liberties are in peril.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

"The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

Fear is a truly terrible thing. To keep our country "safe", we seem willing to give up every freedom we hold dear. Terrorism is the new boogeyman; mention it and we quake in our beds like little children in the night. Where do we draw the line? If Bush says his administration can't step down because we are at war, and to leave office would aid the terrorists, would we let him have an illegal third term? Will we arrest journalists for "aiding terrorists" by reporting the truth in Iraq? Will we bankrupt our future to "protect" our present?

Really -- how afraid are we?

meditations

Today my thoughts are with the poor Amish families of Lancaster, as they try to make sense of their profound losses in the recent school shooting. I would send prayers their way, if I believed. Absent faith, I will think warm thoughts and hope they waft to Lancaster, to comfort the bereaved.

ready to throw some tea

I am ready to throw some tea into the harbor. Okay, I mean that figuratively -- I love tea, and I love the harbor, so really, not going to happen. BUT -- I am starting to feel a tad revolutionary. The news is not helping. We have the ex CIA director, George Tenet, saying he plead with Condoleeza Rice to heed warnings of an Al Quaeda attack, 2 full months before 9/11. We have lots of "did not/did too" going on. We have a high ranking congressman sending dirty emails to teenage boys, while serving on the committee writing laws about this kind of behaviour. We have generals saying the administration is overstating the success in Iraq. We have rumors that the President's wife tried to get Donald Rumsfeld fired. We have rumors that Rice did the same thing. We still have Rumsfeld.

Maybe I will secede from the Union. Or declare war. Or put my taxes in escrow. Or, do what I always do -- sign a petition, write my congressmen, send a check to the ACLU...How pissed off do I have to get before I am willing to risk anything personal?