Call it "creative" accounting or just plain lying. With this administration's record, it's probably obvious which choice to make.

CREATIVE ACCOUNTING

Everything we've been told about this war from its inception has been either an outright lie or a huge exaggeration. Weapons of mass destruction: LIE! Saddam linked to Al Queda: LIE! Iraq tied to 9/11: LIE! Bush saying his administration didn't "out" Valerie Plame: LIE! And on and on and on.

Now they can't even tell the truth about how much this obscene pre-emptive war has cost us.

I'll bet George W. Bush knows exactly how much this "war of choice" has added to his offshore accounts. I'll bet Dick "The Monster" Cheney knows exactly how much he's made from Halliburton as a direct result of this "war of choice" he and the other neo-cons started.

Why do 30%+ still approve of these monsters? Why can't they see what the rest of us see? Our country has survived world wars, a depression, a horrible civil war... I guess we can survive George W. Bush. But our reputation around the world won't be the same in my lifetime. Maybe my son and his generation can overcome the shame of this administration's evil and bring back the pride I once had in this great nation.

Depression is a terrible thing. I know from experience. My mother and sister both committed suicide. Here's a poem I wrote about the fight against despair.

THE WHITE ROSEBUD

Exploring the cave’s darkness,

I’ve spent my life

Scraping my skin on the cold

Stone walls.

Seeking the cleansing light

Which would free me

From the endless night

That is this tunnel.

This cold, damp tunnel

I’ve wandered through

For an eternity

But wait.

There might be a light

An opening to the sun

To the sweet, fresh air

Of enlightenment and joy.

My heart pounds

As if it might burst

From my chest.

As I run toward the light.

Brighter, brighter

Closer to the exit.

I can smell the mountain air

And feel the dry desert in my lungs.

Now it’s near.

Peace floods my soul

As I walk into the scents

Of the earth’s open air and sky.

I squint at the brightness

Of the sun’s cleansing light.

Warmth floods me

Like a blanket on a winter night.

When my eyes adjust

To the blindness

Caused by so many

Years in the darkness

I scan the horizon

And see a hawk soaring

Above the peak of a nearby hill.

What a wondrous sight.

I hear the rustling

Of the sagebrush

Dancing in the desert wind.

What a glorious noise.

And I look down

At the entrance to the cave

This tunnel where I’ve spent eternity

Seeking these sights and sounds

Where I’ve been trapped

In a seemingly endless journey

To this joy and happiness

Which now seems so near.

And there, at my feet

A white rosebud

Glistening with the morning dew

And ready to open to full splendor

To experience the things

I’m feeling and draw warmth

From the morning sun.

And it makes me smile

Like I’ve never smiled.

Sometimes I'd rather be wrong. This is one of those times. I have blogged and commented on other's blogs that if the Arab world united against Israel in this Hezbollah conflict it could be the beginning of the end for Israel.

Now, even the Iranians have joined the Arab world to condemn Israel for the way they've demolished Lebanon on the pretense of eliminating Hezbollah. THE ARAB WORLD UNITES

Al Queda put out a statement yesterday too. You know, Bin Laden, the guy who was "Wanted Dead or Alive" by our illustrious leader until he gave up and disbanded the CIA group who was searching for the "enemy."

Israel has done what Bush has done: Pushed the envelope a little too far. World opinion is turning quickly against both.

I still hope the Arab League doesn't step in to support Hezbollah. That might be the end of Israel and drag us into WWIII. But every day the Israelis blow up Lebanese civilians and United Nations peacekeepers the world is drawn closer and closer to a conflict which will quickly escalate out of control.

Meanwhile, Condi, has announced she will return for another attempt at diplomacy.. She just doesn't know when she'll be able to fit it into her busy schedule. WOW! What's more important than losing the mideast forever?

Another Bush tragedy of misjudgement!

Over the past couple of weeks on one of my other blogs we've had some passionate political discussions. A Lt. in the US Army is a Bush supporter who comments regularly to counter my arguments. "Howard" another commenter usually defends my viewpoint. We challenge each other. We communicate. That's the answer to the worlds problems: COMMUNICATION.

* goldkeyrealty's diary :: ::

*

I was asked the other day why I blog? "What do you hope to accomplish?" was the direct question.

I've thought about it and decided to devote a few words to attempting to answer that question.

Let me start by saying I appreciate every single person who reads my blog and especially those who comment, positive or negative.. That's what this is all about: COMMUNICATION.

Our "Free Press" has performed well in keeping this republic alive for over two centuries. The system of checks and balances put in place by our founding fathers was, although not perfect, an incredibly effective form of government. We've had our ups and downs over the time this country has been in existence. But without those checks and balances there is chaos as we see now all over the world.

The muslim world has been in a fight to the death for centuries. The first Crusades were responsible for atrocities against them that most of us can't imagine today.

Hatred and murder breeds more hatred and murder.

Every 1,000 muslim deaths at the hands of the "Crusaders" guarantees another 3, 4, or 5 thousand future enemies. It will never end until people realize that the "enemy" are people too.

Dehumanizing people has worked since the beginning of mankind as a method of rationalizing the death of a group, sect, religious organization, village, country, etc., etc. It worked for Hitler with the jews. It worked in Rwanda based on the width of noses! "They're not our kind." What idiocy! We're all human beings!

See what I mean? Violence and hate feeds on violence and hate.

Am I going to change the "facts of life" by blogging? No. But as the internet spreads and the world gets smaller, the inevitable result will be to open people's eyes to the fact that there are more similarities than differences. We are all individuals but we must see other individuals as an equal part of humanity.

Al Queda is filled with "evil" people! That's what our leadership tells us. That's what the right wing media tells us. That's what most people in this country think.

But in the Muslim world Al Queda are heroic warriors against "evil" people... Us. If the truth is told there is evil on both sides. Communication is the answer and that will never happen as long as one calls the other "evil."

Bloggers communicate. Bloggers tell their story. Each one is different but the same. It's all "point of view," isn't it?

Bin Laden would be considered a "monster" on the Bush blog. Bush would be considered a "monster" on the Bin Laden blog. But if those blogs existed maybe the comments from both sides would start communication which could cool some of the rhetoric and eventually change the world.

Silly concept? Maybe. But nobody will convince me that blowing each other up solves ANYTHING. It only perpetuates the conflict for generation after generation.

I hope I'm not being to vague or obtuse about the importance of blogging. In a way it's like trying to defend the United Nations, another great concept which struggles in effective execution because it is filtered through each member's perception.

One little blog like mine won't change the world. That's true. But if enough voices are heard, if enough points of view are shared, if bloggers continue to "communicate" maybe the world WILL be changed.

I'm a poet and a dreamer. So was John Lennon. So is Bob Dylan. Maybe we need more poets and dreamers.

A friend of mine blogged this last week. I wanted to share it with my readers:

Force Always Attracts Men Of Low Morality (Einstein)

I don’t know why but I can’t move past it. I see the crime unfolding in my mind’s eye. I am angered, saddened and ashamed. The U.S District Attorney’s Office in Kentucky issued a press release:

"FORMER FT. CAMPBELL SOLDIER ARRESTED IN IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS

July 3, 2006

Steven D. Green, 21, formerly stationed in Ft. Campbell, Ky., with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, was arrested Friday evening in Asheville, N.C., on charges of killing four Iraqi civilians–a man, two women and a young girl–and raping one of the female murder victims, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky and FBI Special Agent in Charge Tracy Reinhold of Louisville, Ky. announced today. A warrant for Green’s arrest was issued Friday, June 30, in the Western District of Kentucky. Green had an initial appearance today in federal court in Charlotte, N.C. and is expected to be sent back to Kentucky for additional proceedings.

The charges allege that on March 12, 2006, while stationed in Mahmudiayh, Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, Green and three other individuals went to a house in the vicinity of Traffic Control Point 1, near Mahmudiayh, to rape one of the adult females living there. Green allegedly shot and killed an adult male, an adult female and a female child who were present in the house. The charges also allege that after participating in the rape of the second adult female, Green shot and killed her.

The Army’s Criminal Investigative Division in Iraq is investigating the allegations, and the FBI is conducting the investigation here in the United States. Green is subject to civilian prosecution under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows crimes committed in foreign countries by members of the military to be prosecuted as if they had been committed within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.

If convicted, the maximum statutory penalty Green could face for the murders is death. The maximum statutory penalty for the rape is life in prison. Green could also be sentenced to pay a fine of $250,000 and to a term of supervised release for a period of five years as to each count."

That’s not quite the way it went down according to Aljazeera and several other non American and non Arab sources. These soldiers planned this girls rape. YES, girl! It was NOT a woman who was raped, not that this would be any less atrocious. She was a 14-year-old girl. 14!!! Her name was Qasim Hamza. She had told her mom the soldiers had made advances on her each day as she passed through a nearby check point. Her mother had Qasim sleep with other women in the neighborhood to try to keep her safe. A neighbor said that the mother had complained repeatedly about the advances the American soldiers had made on her underage daughter. They PLANNED her rape. They went back to their barracks and discussed her and discussed her RAPE . . . reveling in it’s bloody details. On March 11, 2006 they followed through with their plan. They grabbed her, raped her, killed her, burned her and after IT was all said and done, they MURDERED her family. They MURDERED her and her family . . . a five-year-old child was a part of that family.

I understand that war is not pretty and I won’t get into a political debate about whether this war is right or wrong. We all have a right to our truth but those of you who know me know I think Bush is the axis of evil. I won’t argue that these soldiers witness atrocities no human being, should witness but damn it, where is our humanity? We (Americans) call ourselves civilized and yet, Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab hatred and propaganda is freely distributed without a second thought daily in this country. How is what we are doing in Iraq any different from what we did to Native Americans or do African Americans? There is a tone of forced assimilation running through the very fabric of this war. Hate begets hate. We have gone into another country under the guise of helping but can we help when we don’t respect another’s cultural differences? Can we help when we go into a country with an ethnocentric perspective? Why is it our way has to be the right (white) way? I don’t get it. I can’t wrap my brain around how human beings can do the things they do. I don’t get it. This planned rape, these planned murders like the murder of 24 innocent civilians in Haditha really bothers me.

Having worked in the criminal justice world for the past 18 years, I have learned a thing or two. I have learned that when people are in positions where they serve as "guardians" at some capacity for other people that there are two types of people.

1. There are people who work because they believe in humanity. They believe in the innate goodness present in each of us. They believe their role is to help (and part of helping is often letting that person stand on their own two feet and fly or fall). They believe their role is to be the role model and to act in dignity, honesty and respect for the other ALL the time.

2. There are people who work with people and they do it only to meet their OWN needs for power and control. They are the cops and the prison guards who abuse and in reality are paid criminals. They are the social workers and the teachers who work from a personal agenda and refuse to see any perspective except their own. They are the judges and the prosecutors who walk from a place of bigotry and prejudice and they are the soldiers who join the military to quench their own taste for blood and violence.

I have seen the light and the dark in my own field and I believe with every ounce of my being that I have a responsibility to speak up when there is not justice . . . to speak up when there is abuse handed down from those who are meant to protect . . . to speak up even if especially if I am afraid of the consequences. It hasn’t always me popular but it has made me HONEST. I can look in the mirror EVERY day and know that I have fought a good fight . . . that I have done unto others as I would want done unto me!

Maybe this rape and these murders in Iraq bother me so much because my hands are tied. To write and to protest feels inadequate and despite the fact that I, like so many Americans have said out loud and in writing and to all the "appropriate" people STOP THIS WAR. We are powerless . . . raped by President and his people who don’t get this isn’t okay.

I cry helpless tears for the death and rape of this fourteen-year-old. I cry helpless tears for the soldiers who committed these atrocities. I cry helpless tears for the soldiers who are there, who are dying (both physically and emotionally) from wounds our government is forcing upon them. I cry helpless tears for the shame we bring upon ourselves because we don’t question authority.

I don’t know why but I can’t move past it. I see the crime unfolding in my mind’s eye. I am angered, saddened and ashamed.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire

"Georgie", "Rummy", "Dickie"... Rot in Hell!

That last line is mine, not the beautiful lady who wrote the rest of the above.

I treat talking about Israel like I treat school in the summertime: I avoid it. I'll offer my reasons in as fast a succession as I can without assigning any particular priority, and those reasons are similar to but crucially distinct from those offered thus far.

First, I was a philosophy student. And despite Michael Walzer's best efforts, the Israeli-Arab world conflict engenders such a mass of ethical-moral confusion-- based in equal parts factual disputation and ethical-logical considerations--that one struggles to say anything of normative import about what's going on. The entire project of the Enlightenment is brought into serious question, and I'd really just rather not deal with that. So, as a liberal who cherry picks from different schools of thought because he can't--nor should he be able to--make up his mind on a precise and reasonable scoring rubric for the whole conflict, the whole thing looks like a blob to me: no entry point, no foothold, not even an upright or upside down. There's almost no demonstrable way to orient oneself to this conflict. Score one for Kevin Drum's explanation.

Second, the Jew part comes into play because every now and then you'll come across a thread like this one, which combines moral certainity with ignorance, and the resulting brainchildren would be best left exposed on the side of Mount Carmel. This has nothing to do with being intimidated by the discussion. Indeed, it has nothing to do with a reluctance to engage in debate. It has to do with disavowing involvement of any kind with people whose worldviews include reflexive hatred of me. That includes ideologically kindred but anti-Semitic Lefties as well as anti-Semitic Righties, both of whose manners of speaking ring alarm bells in my head. Although I haven't seen a decent explication of it, there's something about anti-Semitism that's superideological--I, for one, believe it rests somewhere in the basal ganglia or the human soul--and I just assume not play in a sandbox filled with kids who want to kick dirt in my face.

Hmmm, I guess that was it.

So, yeah, I'm a liberal and I don't like talking about Israel. But I'd also like to challenge a pretty silly bias involved in the Adesnik indictment: since when is talking a sign of a mature, responsible approach to a subject? Presumably talking is useful if it leads to a solution. But if instead it leads to rancor and proves unenlightening, I just assume shut up.

George W. Bush agreed today to move more of our troops into Baghdad at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Here's the story: THE BUSH SPIN

What a great idea! Let's move more Americans into the "killing fields" so the civil warriors will have our men and women as new "prime" targets. They're probably running out of other Iraqis to murder.

After all, they've been killing over 100 civilians per day for the past couple of months. Shiites blow up Sunnis, Sunnis slaughter Shiites.... They need some new victims. The U.S. military men and women are "Georgie's" answer. Why not? He's already responsible for over 2,600 souls leaving the earth and their families. What's another few hundred?

Now for the spin, George W. Bush expects us to believe this: Things are under such great control in the rest of Iraq that it is time to hand over "control" of the rest of the country to Iraqi forces.. You know, the ones who can't handle Baghdad. What a wonderful idea!

Meanwhile, back to the real threat to American security: Afghanistan's Taliban is making a come back. Not since "Cinderella Man" has there been such a rise from the pits. We have been told for years that the Taliban was obliterated and ceased to exist as a viable threat. Seen the news lately? They took two towns and our forces had to recapture them. Taliban fighters are taking a page out of the Iraqi's playbook. Car bombs, attacks on Americans and Afghani civilians. Fear, war, "shock and awe".. What do you think, "Georgie?" What is Dick "The Monster" Cheney and "Rummy" saying now? What lies are they reassuring you with now?

Every move this administration makes seems to be the wrong one. Here's another perfect example!

Or maybe get them impeached and imprisoned...

DEFEND AND PROTECT?

The Bush administration will be experiencing a lot of court time over the next two years. Testifying before Congress, fighting cases, appealing their losses and, as usual, lying.

It's shameful what they have done in the name of "fear".. A sin..

Two years ago I took my wife and daughter to Stone Mountain Georgia just east of Atlanta. It's the largest granite stone in the United States measuring almost 900 feet in height and 5 miles around the base. Stone Mountain Georgia

It was a warm, humid summer day. Typical for Georgia in July. We had a good time exploring the attractions, learning some of the history and eating good southern food. We stayed for the laser light show that night and it was great.

There's a cable car that takes tourists to the top. The view is amazing. I'd recommend the trip to anyone who travels to Atlanta.

Around midday we took the ride to the top and stayed up there for a little while. There is a walking trail which takes almost 2 miles to climb the 900 feet. I challenged my daughter to walk down with me figuring the trip would be fun and interesting. My wife went back down on the cable car and took the train around to meet us at the bottom.

The walk was challenging and amazing. We stopped many times to check out carvings in the stone which previous explorers had chipped from the granite. Usually a name, sometimes a date but fascinating to consider that people had been hiking that trail for over 150 years and leaving evidence of their accomplishment.

As we took our time heading down, we passed hikers walking up the trail. I wondered if I could make it. I was 58 years old and out of shape but I've always been stubborn and determined so I asked my daughter if she wanted to try to go back up. She declined. I left her and my wife at the train station at the bottom, grabbed a couple of bottles of water and started back up. My wife said I was crazy. She's been married to me for over 20 years so I took her word for it. Truth is, I knew it was probably foolish but I'd made up my mind so I started climbing.

Believe me, it's a tough climb. Before I was 1/4 of the way up I was gasping for breath and had to stop for a minute of rest and a sip of water. Sweat poured from me and soaked my clothes. I was determined not to give up.

My heart pounded as I continued to climb. I stopped briefly several more times. Occassionally I'd say hi to a fellow hiker who passed me going down the hill. I know my face was red and I probably looked like I would have a heart attack any second. But I kept going. I've never been one to give up.

Near the top the few trees disappear and it's just a steep, rocky and narrow trail. One place has a handrail because it's so steep you need to pull yourself along.

Just before I reached that section I heard steps coming quickly behind me. I stopped and turned to see a young black man running up the hill. He bounced and shadow boxed as he ran. I assumed he was a fighter training. He was running! Up that cliff! He wasn't gasping for breath as I was with every step. He smiled as he passed me. I said, "This is what it looks like when you try this at 60."

He nodded and kept running. I was amazed that anyone could do what he was doing. But I kept plodding upward, determined to show my wife that I could make it to the top. The steepest part of the climb is near the end. I pulled myself along with the handrail and walked a little farther. Then I stopped for another drink, the last of the second bottle. I was soaked from head to toe with perspiration.

I was nearing the final part of the climb when the young man came running back down toward me. He stopped for a second and reached to shake my hand. "You're doing great," he said, smiling at me. I felt a little rush of pride that someone noticed that I was going to accomplish this small goal. I couldn't run like he did but he could see that the effort it took for me to get to the top showed that I was determined. I wonder if he ever thinks about the fat, old man with the grey beard who climbed Stone Mountain that day.

It took me 40 minutes to climb that trail. I felt proud to have done it that fast. I had passed some people on the way up including some scouts who were probably around 9 or 10. It was invigorating and satisfying to complete that trek.

Nothing political today. Just wanted to share this little memory. I guess the point is this: Don't give up. Keep climbing in life. Some can make it faster than others but we can all make it if we just keep climbing.