Sozadeeis a state of mind. It was discovered (or founded) many years ago on a hot August afternoon's sail out of Newport Beach. There was no wind (at least any stronger than the current) and a burning, glaring sun. The limp sails afforded no shade. All aboard knew the outboard was questionable. The ice on the beer was melting and discussion was skirting the issue of sunstroke. Suddenly, the word "Sozadee" was uttered, the breeze returned, and all was well.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Pete Stark - A Member of the Democratic Wing
...of the Democraptic Party has stood up and said - FINALLY - what had to be said. Faux News is angry that Rep. Pete Stark interrupted a Thursday debate on the floor of the House of Representatives and launched 'a shocking one-man assault on the Bush administration'. In fact, all Congressman Stark did was to tell the truth, and in so doing, give Bush the lie.At long last the Harry Truman wing is waking up.
At rallies in the '48 campaign, people would yell, "Give'em Hell, Harry!" Truman would yell back, "All I do is to tell the truth, and they think it's hell."
The truth has escaped out of the 'truth paste tube' onto the Floor of the House of Representatives:
Head of Reconstruction Teams in Iraq Reports Little Progress Throughout Country (NYT 19-Oct-07):
BAGHDAD, Oct. 18 — Attempts by American-led reconstruction teams to forge political reconciliation, foster economic growth and build an effective police force and court system in Iraq have failed to show significant progress in nearly every one of the nation’s provincial regions and in the capital, a federal oversight agency reported on Thursday.
On 8-Mar-04, Feisal Istrabadi, was just back from Iraq where he was one of the principal drafters of the Iraq the interim constitution:
I think the significance is that the people of Iraq are taking charge of their future. This is the first step towards the assertion, reassertion of the sovereignty of the people of Iraq, which has been usurped for at least 35 years by a tyrannical and brutal regime.
It is the first step that Iraq takes in over a dozen years to attempt to reintegrate itself into the family of nations. And it is, I think, a day which the first steps towards ending at least the formal occupation of Iraq by the coalition forces begins. It's a significant day, I believe, in Iraq's history.
But this week, Istrabadi, deputy ambassador of the Shiite government of Iraq to the United Nations, resigned in disgust and began speaking out about the corruption, incompetence, and inefficiency of the Iraqi government:
You’ve got patently incompetent men appointed to important positions.
I think the question was: ‘Should elections have been held?’ And I think that there is only one answer to that question, and that’s absolutely not. . . . .You’ve got patently incompetent men appointed to important positions.
. . . . What did we accomplish, exactly, [with] this push towards an appearance of institutions . . . merely an appearance? Except that an American politician can stand up and say, ‘Look what we accomplished in Iraq.’ When, in fact, what we accomplished in Iraq over the last three years has been chaos and instability. . . . there is no Iraqi government.
The Calendar?
This illegitimate occupation is not progressing. It's just aging. We have 454 days - at the very least - to go.
My weekly search for a redeemable Republican has come up empty.
I was going to say something snarky, but all rancor has been sucked out of me by events in Karachi and Johannesburg.
In spite of all that has happened in the beginning of this miserable century, I am rocked back on my heels that I can still be shocked and appalled. Needless, pointless death and destruction occurs everyday. It's just that some days it all becomes barely bearable. 133 in Benazir Bhutto's reception in Karachi are killed? Scores, I am sure, terribly injured. Lucky Dube shot dead in Johannesburg? In a car-jacking? What is the point? The world is dead to me today.I'll just turn up my speakers. . .
