WHAT DOES A GUY HAVE TO DO TO GET IMPEACHED AROUND HERE?

Well, as I mentioned a few days ago, I've been feeling bad about my lack of Bluest Fist posts in a time of such urgency. But today I think, at least in regards to my sworn duty to convince you, my gentle readers, that George W. Bush is the worst president in the history of the Un ited States, can't I just kick up my heals at this point and let Dubya convince you all on his own?

In the past week, Bush has had to withdraw not one but TWO major nominations, the latest being his buffoonish crony Harriet "Not Ready for Primetime" Miers who he tried to sneak onto...um...THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. In addition to this, he had to reinstate the so-called "Davis-Bacon" labor rule -- which guarantees workers in disaster reconstruction projects equitable pay, and was thus unable to throw his right-wing economic base a much needed bone.

Oh, and did I mention that two of the five most powerful people in the White House -- Karl Rove and Scooter "I Did Not Have Phone Sex With That Woman, Judy Miller" Libby -- may get indicted tomorrow on federal charges?

Oy vey!

But unfortunately we don't have the luxury of laughing at this political Keystone Cops routine. Yesterday we learned that 2000 U. S. soldiers have now died in Iraq. For Iraqis themselves there is nothing resembling democracy as we know it while great pain and suffering continue. Iran grows bolder by the day and is no doubt laughing its collective ass off that it managed to convince -- get this -- the United States Government to give it effective control over the ruling party of its archenemy's land. Meanwhile, to the north, the Kurds and the Turks are quietly spoiling to beat each others brains in.

Total presidential incompetence combined with hair-brained right-wing ideology has real and tragic consequences.

2000 soldiers

2000 U.S. soldiers have now died in Iraq.

For what?

TWO DAYS IN OCTOBER

Hi everyone,

So sorry not to have been in touch w/ with Bluest Fist posts ranging from the witty to the poignant to the insightful to the scalding. Life's just carried me away for a few months and may do so for a few more. This isn't a good excuse and I feel bad that in these troubling times I haven't been able to find the time for a good political letter to you. Stick with me and at some point I'll be back on the airwaves with a vengence.

Anyway, Sue and I watched a pretty excellent documentary tonight on PBS's American Experience. It was called "Two Days in October" and it told the contemporaneous stories of the 1967 "Dow Protest" at University of Wisconsin-Madison, on the one hand, and on the other, the massacre by ambush of the "Black Lions" regiment of (mostly teenage) soldiers by Viet Cong.

The documentary is remarkable for the range of interviews -- from the Viet Cong colonel who lead the ambush to half a dozen very brave and honest (it seemed to me) U.S. soldiers who were there and are universally haunted by it (though their political responses to it ranged widely); likewise in the Wisconsin story -- where two of the police officers who lead a brutal repression of the protest manage to reveal the deep class resentment at the heart of their own anger towards the "student radicals" (though without tempering their hsotility very much) -- and a very eloquent guy who was a young professor there at the time really steals that part of the show. The wife of Colonel Terry Allen plays a startling role on the other side of the story.

So, look for it on PBS! And if you see it, send an email to your local PBS affiliate and thank them for showing it.