PLANET CALIFORNIA

Now that the Iraq War has heated up to the point of American lives having been lost so quickly and some so brutally, the American people, I think get it.

Woodward's Book

Here's how I'm trying to work these seeming viscous, deliberate attacks on our Commander-In-Chief in the midst of a battle in World War III.

There. I've said it. We're in World War III.

Ask yourself why it is so important in this life and death struggle that the so called "truth" come out about the White House, the 9/11 Commission, ad infinitum. Can't we shelve that till later, like when the frigging war is over?

This liberal, progressive version of events in our lives have taken on breathtakingingly dangerous aspects. This is not to say I've never thought leftists were particularly benign. Actually, I believe there is a component in left thinking that reminds me of a cultish fervor not unlike what we saw in Europe in the 30s.

I still, however, cannot comprehend what drives a fellow American to take pot shots at the leadership of our country while we have nearly 500,000 troops in harm's way! It's almost like being at a wake or funeral, then bringing in a stripper, or a brass band, or something similar. I'm so astonished at the lack of judgment by those on the left who excoriate the president AND the Republican Party as if it were illegal to belong to the Republican Party.

Let's Make a Deal

My Democrat friends, and I do call you friends. This has gone far enough. Our people are dying while you let your leaders cause roadblocks, start rumors, call into question the efficacy of the mission, try to divide and conquer by showing such sympathy for Powell (who is his own man, even if you can't believe it), and the list goes on. Aren't you uncomfortable now? If you want your roots back, read Democratic Senator Zell Miller's book. He'll help ya get away from the crazies in the party and move on.

What I'll do in return, Scout's honor, is not to overly criticize your president after this war is over. I promise, in writing(unless it's Hillary, and I'm sorry, all bets would be off).

The time for turning the other cheek has stopped. I'm enraged at the movement within the Democratic Party to totally discredit the president such that we have seen increased attacks, emboldened terrorism and senseless politicking.

I'm well known as a partisan, but by God, I can't imagine bashing Clinton like this during such a time. It's unthinkable.

And it will only get worse, unless people of substance, Dem, Ind, Rep, stand up for common civility and decency. I think good dems should disavow the statement made by Ted Kennedy that Iraq is Bush's Vietnam.

Think about that. Bush's Vietnam?

Listen, My Children, and You Will Hear...

I'm so old enough, and cussed enough to bring up that V word--Vietnam. I lived through it.

I have a right to; my brother had three tours there. And he did return safely.

He's never talked about the war, refuses to. Come to think of it, my older brother also never talked about his time in Korea. That's typical, I've found.

Anyway, I want people who were little kids during or born after Vietnam to understand that not everyone in America hated the military or the war. But there was this noisy, obnoxious, unkempt, rude, arrogant rabble (yeah...rabble...they may have had Ph.Ds, but they were a part of a senseless, febrile rabble). In fact, much of what you hear today is like we heard, and heard, and heard from the John Kerry types around us. Only worse. The nightly news (we didn't have cable) told us how everything should be. Hee haw. Just keep the hicks happy.

What a group of fun folks the anti war people were. Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham lookalikes smelling up the rest of America with their ridiculous demands and selfish agenda , telling the rest of us how we should live. Most of them were from upper middle class families who were overeducated and underexperienced. Actually, their parents did them a disservice: most of these people didn't work. Entitlement was the rage then.

Kinda like today.

But, that's the way it was. And sure enough, they got our soldiers home all right. They also caused the surrender of Saigon and Vietnam to bloody Communists. (Communism: you kids really don't know what that is, do ya? ) Thanks to the unscrupulous, immoral Richard Nixon (who caused me to leave my party for nearly fifteen years), many, many more men were killed.

One night at a bar, a woman said, "I don't support the war, but I support the troops." My vet friend, now wise and gray, turned to this young fool and said, "My dear, that is impossible."

We can't do this again.

Thanks for the read.

I'm offended when:
a young man refuses to remove his hat when he's inside.

I'm even more offended when:
his father does the same thing.

I'm offended when:
a lovely looking family man absentmindly lets the door fly in my face.

I'm even more offended when:
he thinks that's okay.

I'm offended when:
the nation's newspaper of record, the NY Times, refuses to change its political agenda.

I'm even more offended when:
the NY Times continues to use its agenda as a way to tell the news in the first section.

IOW: the 9/11 Commissioners treat witnesses as if they are criminals.

IEMOW: one of the Commissioners is part of the old Justice Department that put the US in this kind of crises in the first place, then not take responsiblity for it.

IOW: I listen to a man like Andy Rooney, and wonder what the hell is wrong with his family. Why are they letting him make a fool of himself. to remind you he said our service people weren't really heroes.

IEMOW: CBS tries to tell me he's representative of America's views. How many? Where? Who?

There'll be more IOWs, etc., but not too soon. I just had to get those off my chest.

Thanks for the read.

Has anyone else noticed Senator Kerry has been page two and three, sometime page 14 these days? Wonder why?

Kerry's Over

It just took a cycle of slam dunk political maneuvers by the Bush Pros, and a return of Karen Hughes to give this Kerry guy a real slap across the face.

And they really haven't started. Wait until August, September. Oh, then there's the October surprise. See why I just love politics? The fun never stops in this game.

The War

We've lost a lot of people from Pendleton this last week. Call the Pendleton press office if you want to know how to help. They'll refer you.

I can only say one more time that this is the most important task ahead of America. We must win in Iraq.

The oil problem seems to be getting worse. I think the OPECs believe that by withholding oil, it will make the Bush administration look worse, thus, relieving them of the President's influence in the region.

So...it may be time to open up those capped wells all over continental U.S., and start ANWAR work. Either that or buy hybrid cars.

I had to laugh at a bumper sticker I saw yesterday in Dana Point at the beach. NO WAR FOR OIL. No matter this was affixed to a combustion engine car. Later I saw it belonged to a surfer dude and thought about the many young people overseas who would love to be surfing in the Pacific this Easter Sunday while this little twit is philosophizing and playin in the sea.

What a country.

Meanwhile, the Marines and other services are acting magnificently in the defense of a very difficult nation.

I'm still praying for WMDs to be found.

Thanks for the read.

I swear, we Republicans have really got this strategy down. Thanks, Muhammed Ali.

Lady Condi Shows Her Clout

I told you a long time ago I like this Rice woman. Any girl who likes football the way I do can't be bad.

Anyway, I'm very proud that she stood up to former Senator Bob Kerry who tried to corner her by unilaterally releasing the title of a classified document.

In a beautiful parry, like a veteran defense attorney who knows what the answer is before she mentions it, insists that she have an opportunity to answer the question fully. And fully she answered, despite constant interruptions from Kerry and others...they treated her like she was on trial.

Poor Senator Kerry. He needs to return to the New University in NY and be happily elite. The memo cleared for distribution this evening reinforces, no, slams the point home that no one was prepared for this terrible tragedy. Period. Move on.

"Another Fine Mess You've Gotten Me Into...."

John Kerry (no relation) seems insignificant to me these days. I mean, whoever thought this guy could actually be a president? I'm sorry to say I turn the channel when he appears.

Fallujah

Fa;;ujah and similar battles in Iraq is what it's all about. If we can't hold off a relatively tiny contingent of insurgents, how could we possibly handle a war against terror here in the U.S? Americans are going to have to exercise a trait they hate: patience. there's no easy fix for this terrorist thing. We've just begun.

Happy Easter to Christians, Happy Passover to my Jewish friends. And if because of my ignorance I left out any other religious observances, please forgive me and attribute it to the fact that I'm just another stupid American.

And have a nice day.

Thanks for the read.

Well, I sure missed you. That's that hard thing about being on Planet California these days. Too much to do, too little time.

My Family's Fine, Thanks.

One of the many reasons I had to be away from the Planet is my trip back "home." My sis and I drove through the upper middle west to visit my brother. What a great time we had. I'd forgotten the ways of folks off the Planet. And I'm lonely and homesick for most of them.

Every farm or home in the Wisconsin prairie was more beautiful than the one before. Clean, painted, with purpose. I thought how Daddy, product of an Indiana farm, would have loved these scenes.

We also drove through Chicago at midday. What a treat. I had forgotten that Chicago was my pick for one of the greatest large cities in the world.

Milwaukee, another drive-through, was simply beautiful. We arrived during drive time on a sunny afternoon. I've never, ever seen so many church steeples. These good folks may as well be on Pluto, for the city displays an in-your-face spiritual front.

St. Paul's (or is it St. Anthony's) Cathedral in Saint Paul is another example of the Catholics getting it right. Wow. Very old world looking.

So that's some of where I was for a couple of weeks, with my sis, on a trip. Then I met my husband in Rogers, Arkansas to visit his mother.

"Shock Treatment"

Before I left on my trip, I'd promised myself I'd finish it. I did.

"Shock Treatment," my screen play, is now in the hands of the cybergods who will find it, praise it, pay for it, make it into one of the best High Concept films of the day. Here's the logline.

Before and during WW II, a man sent to a mental hospital and given electroshock treatments, is revealed as an FBI plant, working with his psychiatrist brother’s girlfriend to uncover Nazis, who are using the hospital for medical experiments, and stealing U.S. Army biological weapons for shipment to Germany.

In theaters everywhere, I hope, soon. Anyone wanta make a movie?

9-11 Commission Backfires on Dems

I don't care if Richard Clarke (I don't remember seeing that name on any ballot) wrote down verbatim what happened in those meetings with Condi, et al. The fact is, Clarke is an opportunistic turncoat who is suddenly important, which is why he's doing this to the President in the first place. Condi evidently didn't like him for a higher position. I reject any breast beating rhetoric about how frigging sorry he is, that he failed us...don't you just love the arrogance of this man?

Truth be told, Mr. Clarke is a sad, middleaged little pawn in the Democrat's failing strategic game for winning the election. The Democrats are so on the wrong side, of the people and of history, they've been instructed now to get the MORs, such as Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana to criticize the War in Iraq. Please don't pull Evan Bayh into this thing, Dems, please. I just can't take another one lying to save Kerry. I bet the Clintons, the true heads of the Dem Party, are figuring this out as we speak.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for those WMDs to come out. Politically, if the U.S. has those weapons, it would be the piece de resistance of all political, Prince-like strategies ever attempted. It would be like D-Day. An earthmoving event. I'm still praying for that. Why? Why do I believe there are WMDs?

I must believe in something bigger than me.

Earthquake Predicted Before September 5th, Right Outside My Back Door.

Speaking of earthmoving events, the folks who should know are now predicting a major quake on the San Andreas Fault in the canyon between San Jacinto and San Gorgonio mountains. By my calculation, the epicenter would be about 15 miles due East of my rear patio.

I'll batten down the hatches, make new survival kit, and hope for the best.

Fallujah

Wonder what the word Fallujah means.

The attacks yesterday on the civilians cannot be tolerated. These people, outsider Independent Contractors, must be given protection. The answer for the attack yesterday should be swift, forthright and predictable.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? This basic tactic occurs in war after war, by state after state. The essence of war is always the same: conquering and ruling.

It's easy to say No War. Think of the flak poor FDR had to take, or when MP Churchill was shouted down during Parliament in the 30s when he talked of a "Gathering Storm."

My screen play is about the isolationism of the U.S. before and during WWII. As it turned out, in 1942 at Pearl Harbor, all bets were off. It took a PH to shake people to their very souls. But 9/11 doesn't carry the same cache. The answers I hear are something like, "Yes, but, after all, we do support Israel," or "Well, I doubt another 9/11 will happen now," or "It's America's fault that there was a 9/11." Is it our instant communications that prevents people from ferreting out their emotions from their critical thinking? Reacting? When does self-preservation set in? At the end? When it's too late?

We need to teach people how to be good citizens. Of course, self preservation as a civic attribute is as important as being a peacemaker who's prideful and ignorant of appeasement's final cost. This overwhelming American selfishness makes Fallujahs possible. We turned, ran in Mogadishu when Black Hawk came down. We ran like dogs. Like children, afraid.

I'm seeing a shift after Fallujah. A call for justice and nailing this war down. The desensitizing emotionalism of the American people has begun to go away as Americans get still another gut check.

Kerry Will Lose--He's Too Liberal.

I'm buoyed again this morning, after the endless criticisms against the President have finally faded into the dense layer of icky tobacco and whiskey breath of the Democratic back room deals. The hate speech? Gone. They lost me during the times you called the president "Hitler." Sorry, Dems. I've quit listening. And so have many others.

Thanks for the read.