Weekly Mail September Archives
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Weekly Mail--Hello John Roberts, Goodbye Chad Pennington
News Item--John Roberts: He had his confirmation hearings last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he goes before the full Senate this week. Dianne Feinstein of California Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Joseph Biden of Delaware, Charles Schumer of New York and Richard Durbin of Illinois all voted against Roberts. Of course Feinstein, Kennedy, Schumer and Durbin will vote against anybody Bush puts up there. Biden may be somewhat more open minded.Some people just don't understand that one of the spoils of being President is that you get to pick the Justices that will support their agendas. Bill Clinton picked two pro choice judges, and would have picked 7 more if he had the chance. That's the way the ball bounces. I disagreed with both Ruth Bader Ginsberg's and Stephen Breyer's views on abortion, but they both seemed qualified to preside on the Court, so I had no problem with their being confirmed. I'm sure there are issues where I don't see eye to eye with on Roberts, but from where I'm sitting, he seems like a fair and reasonable man, as well as legally brilliant. He'll be confirmed this week, and hopefully Senator Kennedy won't drown his sorrows too much when its over.(OK there I go again. No, I haven't stopped admiring the Kennedy's and saying that they get a raw deal from the media. But Teddy's fighting a useless partisan battle here. He needs to learn to pick his spots)SPORTSWith Chad Pennington apparently having retorn his rotator cuff, there are fans out there who are saying that the Jets season is over, especially now that Brooks Bollinger will be the Jets quarterback. After Pennington re-injured his shoulder, a couple of plays later, so did backup QB Jay Fiedler.I don't consider myself amongst the ones who are panicking because their struggles are no surprise to me. I thought talk of their going to the Super Bowl absurd from the start, Pennington or no Pennington.Last year they had a cream-puff schedule for the first 5 weeks, allowing them to go 5-0. They proceeded to go 5-6 the rest of the way, backing into the playoffs, where they barely beat the Chargers and then handed the Steelers a trip to the AFC Championship Game. The Jets are just not that good.They way they lost that playoff game in Pittsburgh reminded me of the year they lost to Cleveland in the playoffs. It took years for the Jets to recover from that game, one which they led, blew then had a chance to win in OT. I don't know how long it will take these Jets to get over that, but it won't be this year.
posted by Wild Bill 10:55 AM 2 comments
Weekly Mail: Food and Book ReviewsHi!Friday night we went out for dinner:RESTAURANT REVIEW:ULTIMATE PASTA1ST AVENUE ON THE CORNER OF 57TH STREETDINED OUT WITH: Tara, her sister Kerry, and Kerry's boyfriend BrianThis is a quirky little place that can seat about 16 comfortably. But the smallness of it gives it that "I'm in someone's kitchen" sort of feel. The pasta itself was very good. It's also BYOB, which means that if you plan enough in advance, you can also get soused while eating. Though the portions are large enough that you have to really drink a lot to get hammered. I had the Lasagna Bolognese, and Brian had a Chicken cutlet with a side of Broccoli. That's why he's still built like the military man that he is and I'm built like one of the spare tires the army has on their jeeps.3.5 PattiesThen Saturday night after work, I made my way down to Fiddlesticks on Greenwich Avenue for Lizzie Coogan's 30th birthday party. By the time I got down there all my cartoon favorites had left, but the birthday girl was still there.I had no problem finding the place, but whoa! getting back to where the party was proved to be a hassle. The place was jam packed. By the time I got back to where the party was, I was ready to leave. But I ended up staying for about an hour. Everybody that Lizzie introduced me to, she told "He's getting married in December!" So now they all know.It looked like I had missed a hell of a party. Such has become my life. Not complaining though. Two years ago, I made almost every party and was going nowhere fast. Now I miss parties, but things are going in the right direction. Thank goodness.I told you guys that I was reading two books. I finished one this week. The Jimmy Breslin book, The Church that Christ Forgot.Reading this book was alot like watching a Michael Moore film. Breslin was examining the cases of abuse by pedophile priests in American Catholic Churches. He painstakingly goes through several stories of abuse, one more heartbreaking and disgusting than the next. He of course described his own upbringing in the church, which was actually a mostly positive experience for him. Michael Moore did the same thing in Fahrenheit 9/11. One of the first things he did was show a picture of his best friend who was killed in the Twin Towers, thereby showing that he had as much right as any to call for war. Then proceeded to argue against it.Breslin decides early on in his book that he wants to establish his own church. One that gives to the needy, and takes a vow of poverty, something that two of his main targets, Edward Cardinal Eagan of New York, and Archbishop William Murphy of Rockville Center choose not to. From there he goes on to all the interviews he conducted with victims and their families. He describes a number of priests from Brooklyn, New York and especially Boston, where Bernard Cardinal Law and Bishop Thomas Daily shuffled pedophiles from one parish to another. (Daily later became Bishop of Brooklyn) He talks about one of my old priests from St. Mary's, Father John Thompson, who housed his 19 year old boyfriend in rectory of St. Elizabeth's in Ozone Park (where he was pastor), and stole money from the proceeds of a candy sale to fund vacations for he and his boy toy.He goes after Bishop Murphy for having nuns evicted from a convent so that he could build a mansion near the church where he works. He calls him Mansion Murphy, and gives him hell for his role in the pedophile cover-up. Its a dark disturbing book.I was an altar boy, and I worked in a church for 4 years in college. I can safely say that I was never touched or abused. (The worst was I got yelled at a few times, a couple of times by Thompson). But after reading this book, its a miracle that I didn't. I do remember when I was working in the church, there was one priest there who used to tell me "do not let the altar servers out of your sight." He was fighting this war against abuse a long time before it came to light. Breslin doesn't mention this priest, but he does mention a couple who still have his support, because they kept their hands to themselves and actually did Christ like work.The other night Tara and I were at our Pre-Cana class (which I'll write more about next week) and one of the speakers was a priest who told us that we should "make sure we make a good confession" right before the wedding. I haven't been to confession in years. After reading Breslin's book, I wonder why the hell I should bother.3 Aces
posted by Wild Bill 10:50 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Weekly Mail--Adventures at the LI-BERRYThe former pastor of my Catholic Parish was one of these priests who thought the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Thankfully I had graduated from St. Mary's when he took over in 1988, but I had to hear his sermons till he left in 2001. One of his famous ones, one he told a million times, was about the day that a record number of people got a library card. "More kids went to the library and signed up for library cards on this day than any other in history." Why was this? "Because the night before, on Happy Days, Fonzie had signed up for his first library card."I swear to God I heard this sermon at least 20 times. How we all watch too much TV. I'm not bringing this up to preach about the fall of society as we know it, but because this week, like Arthur H. Fonzarelli himself, I signed up for a library card.Heeeyyyyy!No, it wasn't my first one. I got my first one in 1st grade, 1979, at the Library on Greenpoint Avenue. I upgraded to an adult card when I was 13, and that may have been the last time I used my library card.Over the summer, I read 4 books, which is some sort of record for me. I usually spend my free time writing or (heaven forbid) watching TV. But I borrowed Mark Kreigel's book about Joe Namath from someone at work and flew through that in a week. Then I went to Barnes and Noble and bought The Bad Guys Won about the 1986 New York Mets. (Hey I didn't say I read the classics, I just said I read!) The next book I went through was Thunder and Lightning: a no B.S. Hockey Memoir by Phil Esposito. Then I read Amazin: The story of the New York Mets. by Peter Goldenbock.1) The Namath book was very good. Starting with his father's emigration from Hungary to Beaver Falls, PA, and taking us through Namath's years at Alabama and the Jets, his acting career, and explains why he was such a drunken slob the night he was hitting on Suzy Kolber.2) The 86 Mets book was a howl, and despite the fact that they were a bunch of drunken lowlifes, they still are near and dear to my heart. As my Post colleague Zach Haberman said, "The 26th man on that roster was a vile of cocaine."3) The Esposito book was good, but there were too many mistakes. For example, he talked about the Rangers going to the finals in 1979. He said they beat the LA Kings in the first round and the Flyers to get to the Finals, but made no mention of the epic 6 game series against the Islanders that year. That's like Pedro Martinez writing a book about the 2004 World Series and saying "We played Anaheim in the first round, then we went to the World Series against St. Louis." He made a few other boo-boo's too. But he did a good job recalling the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series, which in Canada is regarded as much as the US regarded putting a man on the moon.4) The Mets book quickly bored me because unlike the other 3, I already knew everything in that book.Then last week, I borrowed a book entitled "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler. 1977 was one of the most insane years in New York City history. He examined the year from the points of view of The Yankees, the 3 men and one woman who were running for mayor, the people of Bushwick, who watched their neighborhood burn to the ground the night of the blackout, the cops who tracked down and caught the Son of Sam, and last (and certainly not least) an Australian businessman, looking to establish a media presence in New York City who went by the name of Rupert Murdoch.So now that I had caught the reading bug, I decided to head up to the library on Thursday afternoon to check out some books. When I saw two that I wanted I grabbed them and started up to the front desk, that's when I discovered that I didn't have my library card. In all seriousness, I probably hadn't checked a book out of the library since before the turn of the century, and that was about 2 or 3 wallets ago.So I had this guy asking me when the last time I used my library card was, and there were a line full of kids standing there watching me. What could I say? I felt like I was in Confession telling the priest when the last time I went to confession was. I simply told the truth "I don't remember" I said.He gave me a form to fill out and told me there was a two dollar charge. I paid my two bucks and in mere minutes, I had my new library card.YAY!So I checked two books out. One was called Crazy Like a Fox by Scott Collins, about how Fox News has kicked the tail of CNN and MSNBC. The other was the Jimmy Breslin book The Church that Forgot Christ, about the rash of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church over the past 40 years or so. While I was waiting to check the books out, some guy in front of me was arguing with the librarian over DVD's that he had checked out. Apparently he had taken out the whole set, but was only returning one. This arguement went on for 10-15 minutes. For a breif moment, I remembered why I hated going to the library.But in the end, despite the morons who run it and the lunatics who occupy it, the library is one of the services the city provides for free, so I may as well use it right?
posted by Wild Bill 11:13 PM 0 comments
Weekly Mail-The Mayor's Race
As you all know, Weekly Mail doesn't endorse candidates it mainly rips the candidates it doesn't like. Last week, I didn't mention anything about the Democratic Mayoral Primary, mainly because I was sure it would end up going to a runoff. And after the returns came in, the favorite, former Bronx Borough President Fernando (Freddie) Ferrer had 39.5% of the vote. He needed 40% to avoid a runoff versus whoever came in second.Second place went to Anthony Weiner, a US Congressman from Queens. I'm not quite sure New York City is ready for a Mayor Weiner, but to me he was the best of the 4 candidates running. (I guess that's as close to an endorsement as I'll get) He was in 4th place for most of the campaign and surged through the polls in August.But Weiner turned into a weenee last Wednesday. Rather than wait to see the results of the absentee ballots, Weiner decided to quit the race and endorse Ferrer. The argument being that a unified Democratic Party is better in which to defeat the incumbent, Republican mayor Mike Bloomberg.Thing is, by dropping out, Weiner let down the supporters that he had. OK, maybe it was only 28%, but it was 28% and growing by the day. People didn't vote for Weiner mainly because they didn't know him well. But once he started getting his TV ads on the air, and getting his ideas out, he developed to good following. Ferrer is kind of like Bob Dole, in that he figures he's owed something since he's run for mayor a few times before. To me, that's his main qualification.And the fact of the matter is, neither Weiner or Ferrer have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Bloomberg anyway. Especially Ferrer. Weiner, at least could have made some inroads so that in 2009, when he's a bit more seasoned and well known, he could take back City Hall for the Democrats. Weiner's only 40, and even at 44, would be a young mayor. It's impossible to say what will happen in 4 years, but I believe his chances would have been better in 2009.But now, the last images people will have of Anthony Weiner, regardless of whether or not a runoff takes place, is that of a quitter. And I think that will come back to haunt him in the next go-around.
posted by Wild Bill 11:12 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Weekly Mail--New Orleans: The Blame Game; Roberts for Chief Justice?
As New Orleans begins the long hard road to get back to some semblance of what it once was, we can now look back and start to see what went horribly wrong. There is as much blame to go around as there is floodwater. And a good share of it is going to President Bush.And it should. 9/11, what this disaster is being compared to, was a surprise, no matter what kind of intelligence they had on it. This hurricane had been predicted days in advance. Also, last year, during Hurricane Ivan, there were concerns that the levies couldn't withstand more than a category 3 hurricane. And yet nobody moved a muscle to re-enforce the levies. In this day and age, with all the money we have, how could we not re-enforce those levies.I was watching the daily press briefing with Scott McClellan last week and all he kept deflecting questions towards a later press conference to be held by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. At Chertoff's presser, he tap danced around just about every question. It was embarrassing. That was the feeling I had throughout this whole tragedy. Embarrassment. There may not have been only so much Bush could have done, but he put people like Chertoff and Mike Brown of FEMA in charge. Chertoff looked as bad as George Tenet looked after 9/11. It was an embarrassment.But much of the blame had to do also with the leadership in New Orleans itself. Their mayor, Ray Nagin is ultimately responsible for coming up with a game plan to protect his citizens. After all, who knows the city better than the mayor? But his plan was to put all those who wouldn't or couldn't get out into the Superdome, then didn't have the common sense to invest in sufficient backup generators that may have, if nothing else, kept the lights on so that the animals that were killing and raping in there would have been out in the light. Instead the Superdome was turned into a hellhole reminiscent of the New York that Snake Plissken was trying to escape from.(Funny, but 1997, the year that was depicted in the 1981 John Carpenter film, ended up being a very low crime year in New York, plus the Rangers, Knicks, and Yankees all almost made the finals of their respective sporrts that year, while the Jets Giants and Mets just barely missed the playoffs. Who knew that Carpenter's 1997 New York would actually be 2005 New Orleans? But I digress....)I also have to give the devil his due once again, as much as it pains me to say so. Rudy Guliani was outstanding on 9/11 and the days following. Alot of this crap that happened in New Orleans could have been avoided if he was in charge. He would have had a solid plan in place to get people out and for those who were left behind at least adequate shelter. And do you think for one minute, there would have been raping, pillaging and looting in New Orleans if Rudy was in charge. I think not.(Of course, Bourbon Street would also be taken over by Disney and Warner Brothers, with all strip bars being turned into Starbucks, and all other bars into TGI Friday's, but you get my point.)The bottom line was this was a failure of leadership on both the federal and local levels. I had a tough time blaming 9/11 on President Bush for he was only in office for 8 months prior, but I have no problem slamming him with this now. He dropped the ball big time by putting people in charge who don't know what they're doing. But more importantly, it was a failure of common sense, a failure of reason, and most of all, with the world watching and shaking its head...it was embarrassing.But now that we've assigned blame, its time to separate the legitimate criticism from the ridiculous. Namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Kanye West.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., seems like a good man whose heart is in the right place. And he may have a point by blaming global warming for the spate of hurricanes that have hit in past few years. But he's putting almost all the blame on President Bush. My God, we've been polluting the air since before either Bush, Kennedy's uncle Jack, and every other President after the Industrial Revolution has been in office. Democrats cause pollution just as much as Republicans. I'm not smart enough to argue about global warming causing hurricanes, but any fool can see that pollution will be around long before and after we're all dead and buried. Sakes.And then Kanye West, who Time Magazine put on their cover as the non-gangsta, non ghetto, rapper, comes out and says that the Hurricane gave the President an excuse to kill black people. Pardon me Mr. West, but I don't think so. From where I was sitting, it was blacks killing blacks down in New Orleans. And as for Bush not caring about the plight of the black person, I remind you that his cabinet is as diversified as anyone who has ever been President. He's had not one but two black Secretary's of State, (one of which is a woman) a Hispanic Attorney General, a female education secretary amongst others. Time may have jumped the gun by making West a role model.John Roberts- His confirmation hearing started yesterday. I think he'll make a fine Supreme Court Justice. He's a good man and I believe that although he has Conservative leanings, he will be fair and open when hearing cases. He should be appointed with no problem.That said, I do have a problem with his being nominated for Chief Justice. I'm of the belief that a chief should have some experience on the Court before he gets the top job. If I were President Bush, I'd pick Antonin Scalia. John Paul Stevens, at 85, will probably step down in the next year or two, or I'd say pick him. Or if I could persuade Sandra Day O'Connor to stick around, I'd name her. But it seems grossly unfair that someone who has never sat on the Court gets to be its leader. That just seems wrong to me.To respond to these or any other comments, please feel free to hit reply post and tell me what you think.
posted by Wild Bill 2:12 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Weekly Mail--New Orleans Disaster; Cindy Sheehan: Grieveing Mom or Politician?APOCALYPSE NEW ORLEANS
IT was right around this time of the year, 4 years ago, when I took a trip down to New Orleans for some R&R. For the next 4 days, I drank and gambled, drank and swam in the pool with some British tourists, drank, and ate at some excellent restaurants, drank, and took a walk along the river, drank, and took a trolley ride on St. Charles Street, drank, and went to a museum.And I also had a few drinks.It doesn't take you long to realize why they call New Orleans "The Big Easy". Its simply a good time place, one where you can drink all day if you want. You can walk down the street drinking a beer and say "Good Morning" to a cop. There's no such thing as closing time either. Its the kind of place where work, bathing and exercise seem optional, and when you do work, you're either tending bar or driving a cab. The other two options are ignored regularly.I'm not knocking New Orleans, far from it. Its a great place to go when you just don't wanna give a crap about anything for a few days. That's the appeal. I do remember taking a trolley ride on St. Charles Avenue and seeing other parts of the city. The financial district, and some of the more upscale houses. But even then, the feeling was just so laid back. The French Quarter, where we stayed was a dump. However, as bad as it was, you could still see the brilliance of some of the architecture in the houses that we passed on our way to Bourbon Street. Problem was, the houses were so uncared for, they were unlivable. Plus, where we stayed served our main purpose, which was walking distance to the bars. I went there with Karl and Keith and all we were looking to do was drink and have a good time. Leave all our troubles behind. New Orleans, for those who want to vege out, is the perfect place.Which is why I can't say that I'm surprised that New Orleans is having such a hard time with their recovery from Hurricane Katrina. When the "Big Easy" all of the sudden becomes the big rescue, there's bound to be trouble.What does shock me is the extent of the damage. I remember last year during one of the big hurricanes, a bunch of people were saying that New Orleans could be "wiped out" because it was built below sea level. I had a hard time believing that any city in the US could be wiped out by a hurricane. Surely, the levies that were holding back the Mississippi River would hold, they've held before right?But by Tuesday night, the 17th Street Canal Levy had broken, and the city was underwater. The pictures and images are heartbreaking. And reading the accounts of what is happening down there is downright scary. Looting, riots, rapes, while wading through knee deep water. You wouldn't think, you wouldn't IMAGINE this could happen in a 21st Century American City.They had evacuated a bunch of people to the Superdome. Now that place has hosted about 10 Super Bowls, the annual Sugar Bowl on around New Year's Day, and the 1988 Republican National Convention. One New Orleans resident who had been living in there since Sunday, said he had to get out. He said that the crime and the stench of raw sewage made that too dangerous and unsafe. Plus it was damaged from the Hurricane, so its safe to say we may have seen the last of the Superdome. This particular fellow, who was talking to FOX News Channel's Shepherd Smith, was on his way to Mississippi, which took a pretty hard hit itself.Now some of you have already given your opinions of how the recovery was handled by the Feds, but if any of you are still wondering about the severity of what's going on in the Gulf Coast, President Bush actually (get this) cut his vacation short by a few days to return to Washington in order to coordinate relief efforts. You know things have to be bad for the President to be in Washington anytime between the 4th of July and Labor Day. But there he was, in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, announcing his recovery plan, and in the East Room on Thursday with his father and Bill Clinton, looking to get the ball rolling on the fund raising that will be necessary to rebuild New Orleans. If there's one thing Bill Clinton can do, its raise money.(One thing I thought might be food for thought,as I'm rambling on here: If there was any good time for Bush to actually STAY in Texas, now might be it. They are evacuating people from the Superdome to the Astrodome in Houston, ( a 350 mile trip BTW) and they are busing loads of people out of Louisiana and Mississippi and bringing them to Texas. Right now Texas is where its at, and maybe he could get a better feel for what's needed if he was there. Then again, I'm probably grasping at straws here.)The question has come up. Can New Orleans ever recover? And I say it has to. In this day and age, there is no excuse. The only thing that's going to keep New Orleans from coming back strong is the politicians who will tie up necessary funding in red tape. Like I said, I have no doubt that Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr., raise billions of dollars. I have no doubt that Americans will give generously. The only thing we have to worry about is getting our elected officials to put their agendas aside for a bit and do the right thing. And that's no sure thing (just go down to Ground Zero and see how much progress we've made down there in four years) But for the sake of bringing back the Big Easy, bigger, stronger and (with hopefully better levies) safer than it was when we went there four years ago.(We'll discuss the government's efforts or lack thereof, to protect and secure New Orleans later in the week.)Cindy Sheehan:Was there a single person this summer, if not the entire year, who caused as much of a firestorm as Cindy Sheehan has? Mrs. Sheehan, is the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who had spent the last few weeks camped outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She says she's looking to talk to the President, and ask him why he is still fighting the war. Bush refused to come out and speak to her.Now Sheehan has become (depending on who you listen to) a champion of the left, or a target of the right. No matter how you feel about what she's doing there is one certain universal feeling one should have: That is sadness over a woman who lost her child. They say we weren't made to bury our children, and war does that. Every war does. It's a tragedy, all the same, one I can't even begin to imagine how painful. The entire Sheehan family deserves the sympathy and the thanks of our nation. There's no debate about that at all.But where there is debate, is where her motives lie. What was she trying to accomplish, and the methods that she is using to accomplish them?I loved the fact that she has chosen Bush's ranch as a place for her protest. I'm sure he didn't enjoy knowing that Sheehan and her supporters were just down the road. He can't get a cup of coffee without seeing them. He can't turn on a TV without seeing them. Maybe next year, he'll cut his vacation down a couple of weeks. Probably not. But the idea of him being off while I'm busting my tail, is somewhat more bearable, knowing that he had these people up his ass all day.Having said that, I have my problems with Sheehan as well. Big problems.She doesn't support this war in Iraq. Fair enough. It's a hard war to support. I still think removing Saddam Hussein from power was a good thing, especially since he defied orders for nearly 5 years when he kept UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq.But the administration sent over an inadequate number of troops, with not enough supplies and no good plan to secure the peace over there. Over 1,800 soldiers have died over there, all but 76 of them died after the President declared major combat operations over. That's not the soldiers fault, that falls on the President and his staff.She also doesn't support the war in Afghanistan. She was asked this by MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball. So we should have let the Taliban stay in power, and continue to allow them have Al-Qaeda training there. Great idea.She also has no use for Israel. She has said in numerous speeches that she believes Israel and the United States are terrorist nations. Well, she actually doesn't consider Israel a nation, she calls that entire area Palestine.She also supports Lynne Stewart, the attorney who represented Sheik Omar-Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of trying to blow up landmarks in New York City. While the Sheik was constitutionally entitled to representation, Stewart was convicted of helping the Sheik get messages out to his followers, including possible plans for more terrorist attacks.At a rally at San Francisco State University last April, Sheehan had this to say about Stewart, the United States and Israel. She called Stewart "her Atticus Finch"-the attorney who defended a wrongly accused black man in the South in the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird." The Sheik meanwhile admitted he wanted to blow up New York.She called George W. Bush a terrorist, and said that the United States is waging a war of terror, is morally repugnant and not worth dying for.She said that Israel is occupying Palestine, and that we allow them to have nuclear weapons. She made no mention of Palestinian terrorism.She also has aligned herself with MoveOn.org, and Michael Moore. But to be honest, those people are harmless compared to the other people at that Lynne Stewart rally, and Stewart herself.And the media has of course attacked their own Axis of Media evil (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly) for launching a smear campaign against Sheehan. Its not a smear campaign, if this is actually what she said. Nobody put these words in her mouth, did they?At best Cindy Sheehan is a woman, deeply grieved by the loss of her son, who has let her grief over take her senses and has made some bad choices. She has fallen into the trap of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", thinking that by linking up to groups such as the ones I've discussed above, that she is damaging the President, when she is probably hurting herself more. By expanding her attacks against Bush to include the United States as a whole, she is violating the rule that many of you have said to me "Anti-Bush doesn't equal Anti-American." Well, read what she has said and you be the judge. But again, she may just be consumed by grief and being exploited by people with a bigger agenda. That's the best case scenario.At worst, Mrs. Sheehan is an anti-American, anti-Semitic hate monger. And if that's the case, if she really believes in the spew she has dished out over the past two years since her son was killed, then she is a fool. And if she believes in that, then she also believes that her son died in vain.And that's on her soul, not the President's.
posted by Wild Bill 10:29 AM 0 comments
Weekly Mail--Hello John Roberts, Goodbye Chad Pennington
News Item--John Roberts: He had his confirmation hearings last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he goes before the full Senate this week. Dianne Feinstein of California Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Joseph Biden of Delaware, Charles Schumer of New York and Richard Durbin of Illinois all voted against Roberts. Of course Feinstein, Kennedy, Schumer and Durbin will vote against anybody Bush puts up there. Biden may be somewhat more open minded.Some people just don't understand that one of the spoils of being President is that you get to pick the Justices that will support their agendas. Bill Clinton picked two pro choice judges, and would have picked 7 more if he had the chance. That's the way the ball bounces. I disagreed with both Ruth Bader Ginsberg's and Stephen Breyer's views on abortion, but they both seemed qualified to preside on the Court, so I had no problem with their being confirmed. I'm sure there are issues where I don't see eye to eye with on Roberts, but from where I'm sitting, he seems like a fair and reasonable man, as well as legally brilliant. He'll be confirmed this week, and hopefully Senator Kennedy won't drown his sorrows too much when its over.(OK there I go again. No, I haven't stopped admiring the Kennedy's and saying that they get a raw deal from the media. But Teddy's fighting a useless partisan battle here. He needs to learn to pick his spots)SPORTSWith Chad Pennington apparently having retorn his rotator cuff, there are fans out there who are saying that the Jets season is over, especially now that Brooks Bollinger will be the Jets quarterback. After Pennington re-injured his shoulder, a couple of plays later, so did backup QB Jay Fiedler.I don't consider myself amongst the ones who are panicking because their struggles are no surprise to me. I thought talk of their going to the Super Bowl absurd from the start, Pennington or no Pennington.Last year they had a cream-puff schedule for the first 5 weeks, allowing them to go 5-0. They proceeded to go 5-6 the rest of the way, backing into the playoffs, where they barely beat the Chargers and then handed the Steelers a trip to the AFC Championship Game. The Jets are just not that good.They way they lost that playoff game in Pittsburgh reminded me of the year they lost to Cleveland in the playoffs. It took years for the Jets to recover from that game, one which they led, blew then had a chance to win in OT. I don't know how long it will take these Jets to get over that, but it won't be this year.
posted by Wild Bill 10:55 AM 2 comments
Weekly Mail: Food and Book ReviewsHi!Friday night we went out for dinner:RESTAURANT REVIEW:ULTIMATE PASTA1ST AVENUE ON THE CORNER OF 57TH STREETDINED OUT WITH: Tara, her sister Kerry, and Kerry's boyfriend BrianThis is a quirky little place that can seat about 16 comfortably. But the smallness of it gives it that "I'm in someone's kitchen" sort of feel. The pasta itself was very good. It's also BYOB, which means that if you plan enough in advance, you can also get soused while eating. Though the portions are large enough that you have to really drink a lot to get hammered. I had the Lasagna Bolognese, and Brian had a Chicken cutlet with a side of Broccoli. That's why he's still built like the military man that he is and I'm built like one of the spare tires the army has on their jeeps.3.5 PattiesThen Saturday night after work, I made my way down to Fiddlesticks on Greenwich Avenue for Lizzie Coogan's 30th birthday party. By the time I got down there all my cartoon favorites had left, but the birthday girl was still there.I had no problem finding the place, but whoa! getting back to where the party was proved to be a hassle. The place was jam packed. By the time I got back to where the party was, I was ready to leave. But I ended up staying for about an hour. Everybody that Lizzie introduced me to, she told "He's getting married in December!" So now they all know.It looked like I had missed a hell of a party. Such has become my life. Not complaining though. Two years ago, I made almost every party and was going nowhere fast. Now I miss parties, but things are going in the right direction. Thank goodness.I told you guys that I was reading two books. I finished one this week. The Jimmy Breslin book, The Church that Christ Forgot.Reading this book was alot like watching a Michael Moore film. Breslin was examining the cases of abuse by pedophile priests in American Catholic Churches. He painstakingly goes through several stories of abuse, one more heartbreaking and disgusting than the next. He of course described his own upbringing in the church, which was actually a mostly positive experience for him. Michael Moore did the same thing in Fahrenheit 9/11. One of the first things he did was show a picture of his best friend who was killed in the Twin Towers, thereby showing that he had as much right as any to call for war. Then proceeded to argue against it.Breslin decides early on in his book that he wants to establish his own church. One that gives to the needy, and takes a vow of poverty, something that two of his main targets, Edward Cardinal Eagan of New York, and Archbishop William Murphy of Rockville Center choose not to. From there he goes on to all the interviews he conducted with victims and their families. He describes a number of priests from Brooklyn, New York and especially Boston, where Bernard Cardinal Law and Bishop Thomas Daily shuffled pedophiles from one parish to another. (Daily later became Bishop of Brooklyn) He talks about one of my old priests from St. Mary's, Father John Thompson, who housed his 19 year old boyfriend in rectory of St. Elizabeth's in Ozone Park (where he was pastor), and stole money from the proceeds of a candy sale to fund vacations for he and his boy toy.He goes after Bishop Murphy for having nuns evicted from a convent so that he could build a mansion near the church where he works. He calls him Mansion Murphy, and gives him hell for his role in the pedophile cover-up. Its a dark disturbing book.I was an altar boy, and I worked in a church for 4 years in college. I can safely say that I was never touched or abused. (The worst was I got yelled at a few times, a couple of times by Thompson). But after reading this book, its a miracle that I didn't. I do remember when I was working in the church, there was one priest there who used to tell me "do not let the altar servers out of your sight." He was fighting this war against abuse a long time before it came to light. Breslin doesn't mention this priest, but he does mention a couple who still have his support, because they kept their hands to themselves and actually did Christ like work.The other night Tara and I were at our Pre-Cana class (which I'll write more about next week) and one of the speakers was a priest who told us that we should "make sure we make a good confession" right before the wedding. I haven't been to confession in years. After reading Breslin's book, I wonder why the hell I should bother.3 Aces
posted by Wild Bill 10:50 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Weekly Mail--Adventures at the LI-BERRYThe former pastor of my Catholic Parish was one of these priests who thought the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Thankfully I had graduated from St. Mary's when he took over in 1988, but I had to hear his sermons till he left in 2001. One of his famous ones, one he told a million times, was about the day that a record number of people got a library card. "More kids went to the library and signed up for library cards on this day than any other in history." Why was this? "Because the night before, on Happy Days, Fonzie had signed up for his first library card."I swear to God I heard this sermon at least 20 times. How we all watch too much TV. I'm not bringing this up to preach about the fall of society as we know it, but because this week, like Arthur H. Fonzarelli himself, I signed up for a library card.Heeeyyyyy!No, it wasn't my first one. I got my first one in 1st grade, 1979, at the Library on Greenpoint Avenue. I upgraded to an adult card when I was 13, and that may have been the last time I used my library card.Over the summer, I read 4 books, which is some sort of record for me. I usually spend my free time writing or (heaven forbid) watching TV. But I borrowed Mark Kreigel's book about Joe Namath from someone at work and flew through that in a week. Then I went to Barnes and Noble and bought The Bad Guys Won about the 1986 New York Mets. (Hey I didn't say I read the classics, I just said I read!) The next book I went through was Thunder and Lightning: a no B.S. Hockey Memoir by Phil Esposito. Then I read Amazin: The story of the New York Mets. by Peter Goldenbock.1) The Namath book was very good. Starting with his father's emigration from Hungary to Beaver Falls, PA, and taking us through Namath's years at Alabama and the Jets, his acting career, and explains why he was such a drunken slob the night he was hitting on Suzy Kolber.2) The 86 Mets book was a howl, and despite the fact that they were a bunch of drunken lowlifes, they still are near and dear to my heart. As my Post colleague Zach Haberman said, "The 26th man on that roster was a vile of cocaine."3) The Esposito book was good, but there were too many mistakes. For example, he talked about the Rangers going to the finals in 1979. He said they beat the LA Kings in the first round and the Flyers to get to the Finals, but made no mention of the epic 6 game series against the Islanders that year. That's like Pedro Martinez writing a book about the 2004 World Series and saying "We played Anaheim in the first round, then we went to the World Series against St. Louis." He made a few other boo-boo's too. But he did a good job recalling the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series, which in Canada is regarded as much as the US regarded putting a man on the moon.4) The Mets book quickly bored me because unlike the other 3, I already knew everything in that book.Then last week, I borrowed a book entitled "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler. 1977 was one of the most insane years in New York City history. He examined the year from the points of view of The Yankees, the 3 men and one woman who were running for mayor, the people of Bushwick, who watched their neighborhood burn to the ground the night of the blackout, the cops who tracked down and caught the Son of Sam, and last (and certainly not least) an Australian businessman, looking to establish a media presence in New York City who went by the name of Rupert Murdoch.So now that I had caught the reading bug, I decided to head up to the library on Thursday afternoon to check out some books. When I saw two that I wanted I grabbed them and started up to the front desk, that's when I discovered that I didn't have my library card. In all seriousness, I probably hadn't checked a book out of the library since before the turn of the century, and that was about 2 or 3 wallets ago.So I had this guy asking me when the last time I used my library card was, and there were a line full of kids standing there watching me. What could I say? I felt like I was in Confession telling the priest when the last time I went to confession was. I simply told the truth "I don't remember" I said.He gave me a form to fill out and told me there was a two dollar charge. I paid my two bucks and in mere minutes, I had my new library card.YAY!So I checked two books out. One was called Crazy Like a Fox by Scott Collins, about how Fox News has kicked the tail of CNN and MSNBC. The other was the Jimmy Breslin book The Church that Forgot Christ, about the rash of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church over the past 40 years or so. While I was waiting to check the books out, some guy in front of me was arguing with the librarian over DVD's that he had checked out. Apparently he had taken out the whole set, but was only returning one. This arguement went on for 10-15 minutes. For a breif moment, I remembered why I hated going to the library.But in the end, despite the morons who run it and the lunatics who occupy it, the library is one of the services the city provides for free, so I may as well use it right?
posted by Wild Bill 11:13 PM 0 comments
Weekly Mail-The Mayor's Race
As you all know, Weekly Mail doesn't endorse candidates it mainly rips the candidates it doesn't like. Last week, I didn't mention anything about the Democratic Mayoral Primary, mainly because I was sure it would end up going to a runoff. And after the returns came in, the favorite, former Bronx Borough President Fernando (Freddie) Ferrer had 39.5% of the vote. He needed 40% to avoid a runoff versus whoever came in second.Second place went to Anthony Weiner, a US Congressman from Queens. I'm not quite sure New York City is ready for a Mayor Weiner, but to me he was the best of the 4 candidates running. (I guess that's as close to an endorsement as I'll get) He was in 4th place for most of the campaign and surged through the polls in August.But Weiner turned into a weenee last Wednesday. Rather than wait to see the results of the absentee ballots, Weiner decided to quit the race and endorse Ferrer. The argument being that a unified Democratic Party is better in which to defeat the incumbent, Republican mayor Mike Bloomberg.Thing is, by dropping out, Weiner let down the supporters that he had. OK, maybe it was only 28%, but it was 28% and growing by the day. People didn't vote for Weiner mainly because they didn't know him well. But once he started getting his TV ads on the air, and getting his ideas out, he developed to good following. Ferrer is kind of like Bob Dole, in that he figures he's owed something since he's run for mayor a few times before. To me, that's his main qualification.And the fact of the matter is, neither Weiner or Ferrer have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Bloomberg anyway. Especially Ferrer. Weiner, at least could have made some inroads so that in 2009, when he's a bit more seasoned and well known, he could take back City Hall for the Democrats. Weiner's only 40, and even at 44, would be a young mayor. It's impossible to say what will happen in 4 years, but I believe his chances would have been better in 2009.But now, the last images people will have of Anthony Weiner, regardless of whether or not a runoff takes place, is that of a quitter. And I think that will come back to haunt him in the next go-around.
posted by Wild Bill 11:12 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Weekly Mail--New Orleans: The Blame Game; Roberts for Chief Justice?
As New Orleans begins the long hard road to get back to some semblance of what it once was, we can now look back and start to see what went horribly wrong. There is as much blame to go around as there is floodwater. And a good share of it is going to President Bush.And it should. 9/11, what this disaster is being compared to, was a surprise, no matter what kind of intelligence they had on it. This hurricane had been predicted days in advance. Also, last year, during Hurricane Ivan, there were concerns that the levies couldn't withstand more than a category 3 hurricane. And yet nobody moved a muscle to re-enforce the levies. In this day and age, with all the money we have, how could we not re-enforce those levies.I was watching the daily press briefing with Scott McClellan last week and all he kept deflecting questions towards a later press conference to be held by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. At Chertoff's presser, he tap danced around just about every question. It was embarrassing. That was the feeling I had throughout this whole tragedy. Embarrassment. There may not have been only so much Bush could have done, but he put people like Chertoff and Mike Brown of FEMA in charge. Chertoff looked as bad as George Tenet looked after 9/11. It was an embarrassment.But much of the blame had to do also with the leadership in New Orleans itself. Their mayor, Ray Nagin is ultimately responsible for coming up with a game plan to protect his citizens. After all, who knows the city better than the mayor? But his plan was to put all those who wouldn't or couldn't get out into the Superdome, then didn't have the common sense to invest in sufficient backup generators that may have, if nothing else, kept the lights on so that the animals that were killing and raping in there would have been out in the light. Instead the Superdome was turned into a hellhole reminiscent of the New York that Snake Plissken was trying to escape from.(Funny, but 1997, the year that was depicted in the 1981 John Carpenter film, ended up being a very low crime year in New York, plus the Rangers, Knicks, and Yankees all almost made the finals of their respective sporrts that year, while the Jets Giants and Mets just barely missed the playoffs. Who knew that Carpenter's 1997 New York would actually be 2005 New Orleans? But I digress....)I also have to give the devil his due once again, as much as it pains me to say so. Rudy Guliani was outstanding on 9/11 and the days following. Alot of this crap that happened in New Orleans could have been avoided if he was in charge. He would have had a solid plan in place to get people out and for those who were left behind at least adequate shelter. And do you think for one minute, there would have been raping, pillaging and looting in New Orleans if Rudy was in charge. I think not.(Of course, Bourbon Street would also be taken over by Disney and Warner Brothers, with all strip bars being turned into Starbucks, and all other bars into TGI Friday's, but you get my point.)The bottom line was this was a failure of leadership on both the federal and local levels. I had a tough time blaming 9/11 on President Bush for he was only in office for 8 months prior, but I have no problem slamming him with this now. He dropped the ball big time by putting people in charge who don't know what they're doing. But more importantly, it was a failure of common sense, a failure of reason, and most of all, with the world watching and shaking its head...it was embarrassing.But now that we've assigned blame, its time to separate the legitimate criticism from the ridiculous. Namely Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Kanye West.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., seems like a good man whose heart is in the right place. And he may have a point by blaming global warming for the spate of hurricanes that have hit in past few years. But he's putting almost all the blame on President Bush. My God, we've been polluting the air since before either Bush, Kennedy's uncle Jack, and every other President after the Industrial Revolution has been in office. Democrats cause pollution just as much as Republicans. I'm not smart enough to argue about global warming causing hurricanes, but any fool can see that pollution will be around long before and after we're all dead and buried. Sakes.And then Kanye West, who Time Magazine put on their cover as the non-gangsta, non ghetto, rapper, comes out and says that the Hurricane gave the President an excuse to kill black people. Pardon me Mr. West, but I don't think so. From where I was sitting, it was blacks killing blacks down in New Orleans. And as for Bush not caring about the plight of the black person, I remind you that his cabinet is as diversified as anyone who has ever been President. He's had not one but two black Secretary's of State, (one of which is a woman) a Hispanic Attorney General, a female education secretary amongst others. Time may have jumped the gun by making West a role model.John Roberts- His confirmation hearing started yesterday. I think he'll make a fine Supreme Court Justice. He's a good man and I believe that although he has Conservative leanings, he will be fair and open when hearing cases. He should be appointed with no problem.That said, I do have a problem with his being nominated for Chief Justice. I'm of the belief that a chief should have some experience on the Court before he gets the top job. If I were President Bush, I'd pick Antonin Scalia. John Paul Stevens, at 85, will probably step down in the next year or two, or I'd say pick him. Or if I could persuade Sandra Day O'Connor to stick around, I'd name her. But it seems grossly unfair that someone who has never sat on the Court gets to be its leader. That just seems wrong to me.To respond to these or any other comments, please feel free to hit reply post and tell me what you think.
posted by Wild Bill 2:12 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Weekly Mail--New Orleans Disaster; Cindy Sheehan: Grieveing Mom or Politician?APOCALYPSE NEW ORLEANS
IT was right around this time of the year, 4 years ago, when I took a trip down to New Orleans for some R&R. For the next 4 days, I drank and gambled, drank and swam in the pool with some British tourists, drank, and ate at some excellent restaurants, drank, and took a walk along the river, drank, and took a trolley ride on St. Charles Street, drank, and went to a museum.And I also had a few drinks.It doesn't take you long to realize why they call New Orleans "The Big Easy". Its simply a good time place, one where you can drink all day if you want. You can walk down the street drinking a beer and say "Good Morning" to a cop. There's no such thing as closing time either. Its the kind of place where work, bathing and exercise seem optional, and when you do work, you're either tending bar or driving a cab. The other two options are ignored regularly.I'm not knocking New Orleans, far from it. Its a great place to go when you just don't wanna give a crap about anything for a few days. That's the appeal. I do remember taking a trolley ride on St. Charles Avenue and seeing other parts of the city. The financial district, and some of the more upscale houses. But even then, the feeling was just so laid back. The French Quarter, where we stayed was a dump. However, as bad as it was, you could still see the brilliance of some of the architecture in the houses that we passed on our way to Bourbon Street. Problem was, the houses were so uncared for, they were unlivable. Plus, where we stayed served our main purpose, which was walking distance to the bars. I went there with Karl and Keith and all we were looking to do was drink and have a good time. Leave all our troubles behind. New Orleans, for those who want to vege out, is the perfect place.Which is why I can't say that I'm surprised that New Orleans is having such a hard time with their recovery from Hurricane Katrina. When the "Big Easy" all of the sudden becomes the big rescue, there's bound to be trouble.What does shock me is the extent of the damage. I remember last year during one of the big hurricanes, a bunch of people were saying that New Orleans could be "wiped out" because it was built below sea level. I had a hard time believing that any city in the US could be wiped out by a hurricane. Surely, the levies that were holding back the Mississippi River would hold, they've held before right?But by Tuesday night, the 17th Street Canal Levy had broken, and the city was underwater. The pictures and images are heartbreaking. And reading the accounts of what is happening down there is downright scary. Looting, riots, rapes, while wading through knee deep water. You wouldn't think, you wouldn't IMAGINE this could happen in a 21st Century American City.They had evacuated a bunch of people to the Superdome. Now that place has hosted about 10 Super Bowls, the annual Sugar Bowl on around New Year's Day, and the 1988 Republican National Convention. One New Orleans resident who had been living in there since Sunday, said he had to get out. He said that the crime and the stench of raw sewage made that too dangerous and unsafe. Plus it was damaged from the Hurricane, so its safe to say we may have seen the last of the Superdome. This particular fellow, who was talking to FOX News Channel's Shepherd Smith, was on his way to Mississippi, which took a pretty hard hit itself.Now some of you have already given your opinions of how the recovery was handled by the Feds, but if any of you are still wondering about the severity of what's going on in the Gulf Coast, President Bush actually (get this) cut his vacation short by a few days to return to Washington in order to coordinate relief efforts. You know things have to be bad for the President to be in Washington anytime between the 4th of July and Labor Day. But there he was, in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, announcing his recovery plan, and in the East Room on Thursday with his father and Bill Clinton, looking to get the ball rolling on the fund raising that will be necessary to rebuild New Orleans. If there's one thing Bill Clinton can do, its raise money.(One thing I thought might be food for thought,as I'm rambling on here: If there was any good time for Bush to actually STAY in Texas, now might be it. They are evacuating people from the Superdome to the Astrodome in Houston, ( a 350 mile trip BTW) and they are busing loads of people out of Louisiana and Mississippi and bringing them to Texas. Right now Texas is where its at, and maybe he could get a better feel for what's needed if he was there. Then again, I'm probably grasping at straws here.)The question has come up. Can New Orleans ever recover? And I say it has to. In this day and age, there is no excuse. The only thing that's going to keep New Orleans from coming back strong is the politicians who will tie up necessary funding in red tape. Like I said, I have no doubt that Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr., raise billions of dollars. I have no doubt that Americans will give generously. The only thing we have to worry about is getting our elected officials to put their agendas aside for a bit and do the right thing. And that's no sure thing (just go down to Ground Zero and see how much progress we've made down there in four years) But for the sake of bringing back the Big Easy, bigger, stronger and (with hopefully better levies) safer than it was when we went there four years ago.(We'll discuss the government's efforts or lack thereof, to protect and secure New Orleans later in the week.)Cindy Sheehan:Was there a single person this summer, if not the entire year, who caused as much of a firestorm as Cindy Sheehan has? Mrs. Sheehan, is the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who had spent the last few weeks camped outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She says she's looking to talk to the President, and ask him why he is still fighting the war. Bush refused to come out and speak to her.Now Sheehan has become (depending on who you listen to) a champion of the left, or a target of the right. No matter how you feel about what she's doing there is one certain universal feeling one should have: That is sadness over a woman who lost her child. They say we weren't made to bury our children, and war does that. Every war does. It's a tragedy, all the same, one I can't even begin to imagine how painful. The entire Sheehan family deserves the sympathy and the thanks of our nation. There's no debate about that at all.But where there is debate, is where her motives lie. What was she trying to accomplish, and the methods that she is using to accomplish them?I loved the fact that she has chosen Bush's ranch as a place for her protest. I'm sure he didn't enjoy knowing that Sheehan and her supporters were just down the road. He can't get a cup of coffee without seeing them. He can't turn on a TV without seeing them. Maybe next year, he'll cut his vacation down a couple of weeks. Probably not. But the idea of him being off while I'm busting my tail, is somewhat more bearable, knowing that he had these people up his ass all day.Having said that, I have my problems with Sheehan as well. Big problems.She doesn't support this war in Iraq. Fair enough. It's a hard war to support. I still think removing Saddam Hussein from power was a good thing, especially since he defied orders for nearly 5 years when he kept UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq.But the administration sent over an inadequate number of troops, with not enough supplies and no good plan to secure the peace over there. Over 1,800 soldiers have died over there, all but 76 of them died after the President declared major combat operations over. That's not the soldiers fault, that falls on the President and his staff.She also doesn't support the war in Afghanistan. She was asked this by MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball. So we should have let the Taliban stay in power, and continue to allow them have Al-Qaeda training there. Great idea.She also has no use for Israel. She has said in numerous speeches that she believes Israel and the United States are terrorist nations. Well, she actually doesn't consider Israel a nation, she calls that entire area Palestine.She also supports Lynne Stewart, the attorney who represented Sheik Omar-Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of trying to blow up landmarks in New York City. While the Sheik was constitutionally entitled to representation, Stewart was convicted of helping the Sheik get messages out to his followers, including possible plans for more terrorist attacks.At a rally at San Francisco State University last April, Sheehan had this to say about Stewart, the United States and Israel. She called Stewart "her Atticus Finch"-the attorney who defended a wrongly accused black man in the South in the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird." The Sheik meanwhile admitted he wanted to blow up New York.She called George W. Bush a terrorist, and said that the United States is waging a war of terror, is morally repugnant and not worth dying for.She said that Israel is occupying Palestine, and that we allow them to have nuclear weapons. She made no mention of Palestinian terrorism.She also has aligned herself with MoveOn.org, and Michael Moore. But to be honest, those people are harmless compared to the other people at that Lynne Stewart rally, and Stewart herself.And the media has of course attacked their own Axis of Media evil (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly) for launching a smear campaign against Sheehan. Its not a smear campaign, if this is actually what she said. Nobody put these words in her mouth, did they?At best Cindy Sheehan is a woman, deeply grieved by the loss of her son, who has let her grief over take her senses and has made some bad choices. She has fallen into the trap of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend", thinking that by linking up to groups such as the ones I've discussed above, that she is damaging the President, when she is probably hurting herself more. By expanding her attacks against Bush to include the United States as a whole, she is violating the rule that many of you have said to me "Anti-Bush doesn't equal Anti-American." Well, read what she has said and you be the judge. But again, she may just be consumed by grief and being exploited by people with a bigger agenda. That's the best case scenario.At worst, Mrs. Sheehan is an anti-American, anti-Semitic hate monger. And if that's the case, if she really believes in the spew she has dished out over the past two years since her son was killed, then she is a fool. And if she believes in that, then she also believes that her son died in vain.And that's on her soul, not the President's.
posted by Wild Bill 10:29 AM 0 comments
Comments