Positively Puzzled

I see it’s been nearly three months since I composed a full blog entry. I seem to have lost my voice. I never intended to drop out for so long, but that’s how it turned out. It’s not for lack of an earnest desire to speak out on a myriad of issues and deep concerns, particularly about the state of the union. It has been a difficult period for me, which would have been unbearable without the solace and support, the love and blessings, of my family. I’m so grateful that they’re here for me. I thank them for their patience in dealing with the vagaries of my funk and splenetude. Frankly, just about every day it seems, I’ve felt overwhelmed and depressed by the accumulation of things I hear and read about in the news. So many of my days have seemed joyless, and I’ve come to sorely miss my sense of humor. Also, I’ve been extremely frustrated by the very fact that, despite a sense of urgency, I’ve been unable to write about it. I’ve been backed into a corner, mainly b...

Last Thursday on Democracy Now! , Amy Goodman was talking with Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights , an organization that is suing Blackwater for the September 16 killings in Baghdad . They also represent Guantanamo prisoners, and Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen that our government, if you hadn't heard, abducted, interrogated, tortured, and imprisoned for nearly a year…by mistake…perhaps because they thought they had Bill Maher? About 31 minutes into the podcast, Goodman presented a clip of George W. Bush from April 2006 that particularly caught my attention (bracket comments are mine): AMY GOODMAN: In April of last year, President Bush spoke at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopk ins University . After his talk, he took questions from students at the school. STUDENT: My question is in regards to private military contractors. The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq . I asked your Sec...

Evidently, according to Dennis Kucinich's web site , he was to give a news conference today on a plan to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. ("Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 5 p.m. on the Cannon Terrace, intersection of Independence and New Jersey Avenue".) I'm not finding the coverage at the moment... It got me to thinking about a program I heard on public radio last month. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson was on Tom Ashbrook's program On Point Monday, March 26, 2007. I found it riveting. I decided to transcribe portions of it because I thought it important and worth sharing. (Naturally, I recommend that you listen to the whole program .) Excerpts: Host Tom Ashbrook : Why are you calling for the impeachment of President Bush? Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson (pictured) : I think this president has so badly abused his power, breached his trust in remarkable ways with our Congress, with the American people, has violated so many of our international treaty o...