Good evening. As usual, I'll start things off by noting Democracy Now!
Cindy Sheehan Vigil Gains Support From Congress
Meanwhile, in Crawford, Texas Cindy Sheehan is continuing her vigil outside the ranch where President Bush is once again vacationing. And her campaign is gaining momentum and support. Sheehan, of course, grabbed headlines in recent days since she began camping near President Bush's ranch. She is the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. As more military families arrived from several states to join Sheehan, 38 members of Congress signed a letter asking Bush to meet with her. On Saturday, National Security Advisor Steven Hadley and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Joe Hagin met with Sheehan briefly, but she called the exchange "pointless" and has said she will stay in Crawford until the president meets with her.
Rumsfeld Planning 9-11 Party/Country Music Concert
For many, the upcoming September 11th anniversary will be a time for somber reflection. Apparently not for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. This week, he announced the Pentagon will hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of 9/11. Rumsfeld is calling the event the "America Supports You Freedom Walk." The march will start at the Pentagon and end at the National Mall with a show by country star Clint Black. Black is the man behind the song "I Raq and Roll," a song that conflates Saddam Hussein with "the devil" who attacked the United States on 9/11. One verse of the song goes, "We can't ignore the devil, he'll keep coming back for more ... If they won't show us their weapons, we might have to show them ours. It might be a smart bomb -- they find stupid people, too. And if you stand with the likes of Saddam, one just might find you." The announcement of this 9/11 celebration and concert outraged victim's family groups and veterans organizations.
Cindy Sheehan, man are people starting to talk. I got up this morning telling myself I'd be a pest and bring it up with people I'd already talked about it with and on top of that with anyone I passed. Biggest surprise to me was that I really didn't have to start the conversation. People were bringing it up to me.
At work this old guy, I know he was retired, brings it up and says to me he voted for Bully Boy and he can't believe how "disrespectful" he's beeing to Cindy. He said Bully Boy was supposed to be a straight talker and there he was "hiding from a woman in pain, reminds me of the way he hid behind that Harris woman during the Florida thing." (He means Katharine Harris during the non-recount in Florida.) He said "there's no fool like an old fool and boy was I an old fool for voting for him."
I got the feeling this guy didn't get to talk much because he had a lot to say. Or maybe the people he usually talks are people he's not comfortable saying he made a mistake voting for the Bully Boy too. But he let it rip. He was furious. He said he believed until the violence kept up after the elections in Iraq and now he's just "p.o.ed" and Bully Boy won't bring "our sons and our daughters back, and what a coward, he's gotten our girls killed too" and he won't meet with Cindy who "lost her boy." He goes he's washing his hands of the Bully Boy and he's not giving to the RNC. He goes he gives every election cycle and that's Congressional and presidential but he's had enough. "They've screwed our country, excuse my language."
About Rummy's concert. That Clint Black is a joke and so's his dopey wife. They're both tools and they should be ashamed and embarrassed to let themselves be used to act like Iraq was involved in 9/11 and to act like everything's cool. They are disgusting.
Let's dig into the e-mails. Robyn e-mails to say that she feels like Cindy Sheehan's doing something really important and that things are changing. I agree with you Robyn and so does
Terry who says that his whole family is behind Cindy Sheehan and Terry's got a big family. He's one of eight kids. Bonita says that all the talk from me, Elaine, Kat, Cedric and C.I. have made her bring up this topic everywhere and that the more people she tells about Bully Boy's refusing to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the more people are disgusted with him. Bobbie says that now that she's more comfortable with herself she's talking to people about everything including Cindy Sheehan.
So what about the rest of you? Are you doing the same? Terry was the only guy who wrote in.
So fellows, are we going to let the women do all the work or are we going to do our part too?
Today's August 11th, Cindy's planning to stay down in Crawford all month. And look at all the people taking part and joining her too. This is a movement.
I want to close by noting my buddy Cedric's "Anybody talking about John H. Johnson? Why not?" (Cedric's Big Mix):
Did you know that Peter Jennings died? I guess you did. I guess you couldn't listen to the radio or the TV without knowing about it. I guess you think he's the only one who died in the last few days. There were actually quite a few people who died.
One of them was John H. Johnson.
He started and published Jet and Ebony. Now I'm guessing if you never heard of them you don't get that those were important magazines. They helped fight stereotypes and they also helped people see what blacks could be and were. Back in the day, you didn't have Dr. Huxtable and the Huxtable clan. You didn't have a Denzel or anyone like that. If you saw a black person on your TV set they were usually a criminal or a maid or some servent. Now maybe they were a guest star on a musical special. That's about the most that could be hoped for.
My grandparents can tell you about it, my mother can tell you about it. (My father could tell you about it if he were still alive.)
You know when you pick up People Magazine and all the people in the ads are white? That's pretty common. Ebony & Jet were important enough that Johnson could get advertisers to use black people in the ads.
And not only did they uplift a people and inspire by offering something other than the usual stereotypes, the magazines could also address politics and civil rights. All of this was dreamed up by John H. Johnson. He knew we could support a magazine, support more than one magazine.
Check out Cedric, he's completely cool and tells it like it is. And keep getting the word out on Cindy Sheehan.
